Glitch Switch
by Fix-it Feli
Summary: When Vanellope and Felix get in a horrid car crash, their lives change... and not for the better. With the help of Ralph and Calhoun, they must set things back to normal.
1. Chapter 1

Ever since Calhoun had moved into the Nicelanders' apartment, she and Felix took to traveling with Ralph each day to visit Vanellope in her home game.

Visiting Sugar Rush had gotten more exciting as days went by. It had started out with them simply watching the Random Roster Race. Felix and Ralph tended to act as Vanellope's cheerleaders. Calhoun always rolled her eyes at their excitement, but Felix noticed she would always smirk proudly when Vanellope came in first.

As the Random Roster Races began to lose their initial joy, Vanellope decided to entertain them in a brand new way. She proposed that the three of them made their own karts.

Ralph immediately protested, claiming he would never be able to fit into one of the "pipsqueak-sized karts of hers". But Vanellope wouldn't take no for an answer, and got her subjects to create a large Ralph-sized kart from scratch.

And once Ralph had a kart, the other two simply couldn't say no to building their own. It would be rude, after all, and Felix wasn't one to be rude! And as for Calhoun, well, being the competitive type that she was, the prospect of racing caused excitement to course through her body.

That's how the three of them ended up with their own personalized karts. Calhoun's hood bore a sharp point, and her entire kart was coated in black icing, topped with some orange gumdrops for good measure. Felix's was blanketed in light blue frosting, covered in an assortment of yellow candies. Plus, his wheels were made of pies! Ralph's was, of course, positively orange, with a handful of red candies. Otherwise, it didn't look very aesthetically appealing; he had cracked the glass of a bunch of other candy-filled glasses once again, accidentally dumping an extraordinary amount of candies upon the kart.

Before they could start racing, Vanellope took it upon herself to teach each of them how to drive. She had started with Calhoun, who wanted to get training over with as quickly as possible. The Sergeant turned out to be an efficient student; she learned quickly and with ease. It only took about two days before she was driving like a pro.

Vanellope moved on to Ralph afterwards, for Felix was anxious about starting to drive, and was struggling to prolong his imminent doom. Ralph took about a week to teach, and he had been in quite a few crashes in the meantime (it was hard for him to balance his weight within the kart), but once he got the hang of it, he was an excellent driver.

When it was finally time for Vanellope to show Felix the ropes, he was a nervous wreck. Learning was a huge struggle for him, for, he would always get really tense and forget to take in his surroundings, and this would cause him to only look straight ahead, which left his flanks and backside vulnerable.

When turning corners, Felix would always make the mistake of speeding up. And when told to stop, he would always begin to panic, and would never stop in time. Sometimes he mixed up the gas and brake pedals, which always ended in the worst crashes. And on top of it all, when panic got the best of him, he would slam too hard on the pedals, which would usually send him tumbling out of the car.

He definitely was the worst student out of the three of them, and after three weeks, he still hadn't made much progress. Vanellope was starting to get tired of it, and was tempted to give up. But upon Calhoun's prompting that learning to drive would be good for him, Vanellope agreed to continue to work at it.

"Okay, let's try something different," Vanellope declared one day as she hopped onto the hood of Felix's race kart. Felix flinched, already on edge just from being behind the wheel.

"You're always too focused on what's in front of ya, so I'm gonna teach you how to turn." She jumped off of Felix's kart and glitched her way into her own, landing smoothly in her seat. She had made sure to park her own kart far enough from Felix's that he would have more time to react.

"So here's what we're gonna do," she continued, "I'm gonna drive on this side of the road," she gestured, sweeping her hand up and down the race track.

Felix nodded, trying not to look too nervous.

"And you're gonna drive towards me. When I say so, you have to turn right. That's it. Got it?"

"I think so," Felix said with a shaky smile. "Er…" He looked at his gloved hands, trying to remember which way was left and which was right. You write with your right hand…oh. "Alright, I'm ready to go!" Felix said.

Vanellope nodded and revved her engine, causing Felix to jump. His heart rate began to speed up uncomfortably, and he fiddled with the wheel anxiously.

Vanellope began to drive her car towards Felix's, moving at a very slow pace. Felix pressed down on a pedal, but nothing seemed to happen. He tried to fight down his rising panic.

"Wrong pedal, small fry!" Vanellope shouted.

Oh, right.

Finally, Felix's kart began to inch forward. All of the car's movements were jerky, and Felix had his hands practically glued to the wheel.

Vanellope rolled her eyes and sped up a little. She was getting kinda tired of this. Besides, usually if she sped up a bit, he did too.

Felix did in fact speed up, but had pushed down on the gas way too hard. And now that he was moving faster, he couldn't seem to remember how to stop. Their karts were growing nearer and nearer, faster and faster. Vanellope relaxed a bit when she saw Felix driving at a more daring pace. Maybe he was finally loosening up.

"All right, Felix," Vanellope called, "Turn!"

Felix couldn't stop. He couldn't think straight; he was afraid to take his eyes off of the road in front of him.

"Felix, you gotta turn!" Vanellope tried again, louder.

This registered just barely in Felix's panicked mind, and he stiffly turned the wheel a tiny bit to the left.

"No, that's the wrong way! Stop! Stop stop stop—"

Felix's kart smashed right into Vanellope's. Both the kid and the fixer were propelled out of their respective karts, tumbling through the air. Vanellope tried to glitch out of Felix's path, but she reacted just a second too late. Felix and Vanellope slammed right into each other, mid-air. They landed in a heap on the race track.

Vanellope looked around dizzily._ That doofus… _she thought, trying to get her bearings, but the world was spinning. Everything went hazy, then fell dark.


	2. Chapter 2

When Vanellope awoke, she found that she was being held in someone's arms. Expecting to have been saved by her concerned best friend, she pried open her eyes, groaning, "Wow, you smell nicer than ever, Stink—"

Hold on.

This wasn't Ralph.

Surprise gripped her upon finding that Calhoun had been the one to scoop her up. That didn't seem right… why wasn't she hovering over Felix? Wouldn't she be more worried for her husband? And what of Ralph? Did he not care enough about his own best friend to check if she was alright?

"Felix," sighed Calhoun as she peered down at Vanellope, appearing relieved. "You're okay."

_Felix?_ Vanellope thought in confusion. _I'm not… _And then she glanced down at her hands. Yellow gloves covered them. Her head felt heavy, and she patted the top of it to find that she was wearing a cap. Her clothes weren't even the same… "Is this some kind of joke?" she demanded, glaring up at Calhoun as if this was the Sergeant's doing.

Confusion clouded poor Calhoun's gaze. "Huh? Are… are you okay, honey?" she asked, her voice hushed.

"'Honey'? Since when do you use pet names? I thought you were a tough Sergeant," growled Vanellope, hopping out of her arms. Upon landing on the ground, she heard an unfamiliar jingle. She glanced down curiously; a belt was wrapped around her waist, and a golden hammer was swinging from the belt loop.

"Wha… Why am I wearing Felix's clothes?" she finally asked the question aloud, glaring up at Calhoun, demanding an answer. Calhoun just stared at her in shock. "Seriously, guys, this isn't—" She began, turning to look at Ralph for the first time. However, the person that Ralph held in his giant hands caused shock to pulse through her, stopping her short.

Ralph was holding her body.

* * *

As consciousness took over, pain slammed into Felix. He tried to writhe about, hoping to maybe get to his feet. But it didn't take much for him to figure out he wasn't on the ground.

He could hear people conversing, and it felt like they were eons away, as he still wasn't fully conscious. Finally, though, he resurfaced from the darkness, and could hear the voices loud and clear.

"There's no way this could have happened. There's got to be a rea—" Ralph's voice was saying from a few feet away. Though Felix was tempted to eavesdrop on the conversation, he couldn't help the agonized groan that slipped out of him.

"Wait, shhh," hissed his wife's voice from right beside his ear. "He's awake."

Felix's eyes fluttered open. He found that he was being cradled in his wife's arms, which comforted him and managed to ease some of his pain somehow.

"Hey there, honey," she cooed quietly. Felix grinned up at her, thankful for the polite awakening. However, all the same, he noticed something… off. Though his wife displayed proper concern, there was something else in her gaze too… "Are you alright?" she asked after a moment, voice still soft.

"I'm fine," he assured her, though it was half-hearted, considering he was still wincing in pain. "Nothin' ol' Fix-it Felix Jr. can't fix." He reached for the hammer that he always kept hanging from his belt loop. His hand grasped air. "What the…?" He patted his waist, expecting to feel the hard leather of his belt. Instead, he felt the papery thin material of a wrapper, and heard an unfamiliar crinkle.

"Should we just tell him?" Ralph asked.

"Let him figure it out himself. He's a big boy," Calhoun responded, watching Felix closely, as if she were observing his reactions.

"Figure out what?" quipped Felix as he peered down at his clothes. He was adorned in a mint green sweatshirt and… was that a skirt? It looked more like a large Reese's wrapper, though… and… were those tights? Wait a minute… he recognized this outfit. It wasn't his own, but it definitely belonged to someone else…

"You're me," said a familiar and yet somehow unfamiliar voice from below. Felix glanced at the ground to find himself staring face-to-face with… himself.

"What the?" he yelped, flailing about in his surprise, resulting in him tumbling from Calhoun's grasp and connecting ungracefully with the ground.

With a sigh, Felix's body repeated, "You're me." Then, he added, "and I'm you."

"Wha… Vanellope? Is that you?"

"Well, technically, no, I'm you. But, I guess, sort of?" It was weird hearing his own voice come from someone else. It was also weird seeing himself talk so… unlike himself.

"H-how did this happen?" he squeaked as he stumbled to his feet, placing his hand on his forehead. Crashing head-first with the ground had only increased the pain that flowed throughout his body. "Ugh, and could ya hand me my hammer?"

Vanellope complied, digging the hammer out of the belt loop and tossing it to Felix, who juggled it around in his hands for a moment before managing to get a firm grip on it. He tapped it against his face, and sighed in relief when the pain vanished immediately.

"So, here's what we think is going on," Vanellope began as she snatched Felix's hammer away from him and shoved it back into her belt loop. "When we hit each other really hard while flying through the air, something may have happened within the programming… And, I guess, somehow, we switched bodies."

"That doesn't make much sense," Felix admitted, frowning in confusion.

"I know, I know. But, I mean, look at us. This whole thing doesn't make much sense!" Vanellope sighed in exasperation.

"I see your point," mused Felix, tapping his chin thoughtfully. "Okay, so how do we fix this?"

"What if you two crashed into each other again?" Ralph suggested.

"That sounds like fun," Vanellope agreed.

"I'd rather not," Felix mumbled.

"It's worth a shot," Calhoun urged.

"Yeah, look, Felix, it'll be as easy as pie." Vanellope approached Felix, who couldn't help but tremble a little at the thought of being knocked unconscious once more. "Ready?"

"Wait, I don't—"

"And, go!" Vanellope charged at Felix, who stood rigidly in place, horror etched upon his face. Before he could react properly, Vanellope slammed right into him. The two went tumbling to the ground.

"Did it work?" whimpered Felix as he slowly sat back up. He glanced down. He was still in the same attire that he had awoken into.

"No," grumbled Vanellope as she hopped to her feet. "That was a lame crash anyway. Let's try again!"

"How about we take a rest?" Felix muttered, getting to his feet as well.

Ralph caught Vanellope by the scruff of her shirt as she tried to go charging towards Felix again. Vanellope thrashed around in the air for a bit as Ralph dangled her off the ground, before giving up and crossing her arms in disappointment.

Relieved, Felix turned to Ralph and Calhoun. "What do we do now?" He asked. It was strange to hear Vanellope's voice every time he spoke. "What happens when the arcade opens? I can't do my job lookin' like this."

"Me neither," Vanellope said. "I can't race looking like Felix. No offense, Felix."

"None taken, little miss."

Calhoun and Ralph exchanged glances; both seemed at a loss. With his free hand, Ralph scratched his head in thought. "I dunno much about code," he said. He set Vanellope back down on the ground. "We need to see some kind of expert about this. This is some freaky stuff."

"Never seen anything like it," Calhoun agreed, frowning. She looked from Felix's body to Vanellope's. "But not many people know much about code."

"Yeah. The only person I can think of is Turbo," Ralph said, "and he's dead."

"Thank goodness," Vanellope mumbled, voice holding a bitter note.

"What about that sour fella that was always helping King Candy?" Felix asked. "Maybe he knows something?"

Ralph shook his head. "I doubt he knows much. Turbo locked up Sour Bill's memories when he locked up the racer's."

"All our memories have been restored, though," Vanellope said. "So he might know something."

Ralph still looked doubtful, but he complied. "Guess it's worth a shot."

"It's a start," Felix agreed, tugging at the candy wrappers that made up Vanellope's skirt. "I'd ask near anyone right now. This is all mighty uncomfortable."

"You're tellin' me," Vanellope snorted. "Why do ya wear this dumb get-up, anyway?"

Suddenly Vanellope had an idea. Grinning at her own genius, she tugged the golden hammer from her belt and went over to Felix. She raised it above her head, then paused for dramatic effect. Felix gave her a bewildered look.

"I can fix it," Vanellope said. She tapped Felix's clothes with the hammer, meaning to switch them, but since the clothes were technically on the right people, they stayed put. "Huh, I really thought that was gonna work…" Vanellope said, examining the hammer.

Then, shrugging, she looked over at her kart. It sat a few feet away, totaled and smashed against Felix's kart. She glitched over to it. She seemed relieved as she came to a halt. "'Least I can still glitch," she said.

She raised the hammer over her head again and repeated Felix's mantra of "I can fix it," before slamming the hammer down onto the karts. They were instantly repaired, good as new.

"Hey!" Felix protested as Vanellope swung the hammer around in triumph, "Be careful with that! Give it back, please." He knew it couldn't ever really break, being magic and all, but he felt vulnerable without it.

Vanellope ignored him, looking around for something else to fix with the hammer. It was kinda fun.

"Vanellope, please, give me back my hammer!" Felix persisted. He tried to get it back from her, but she easily glitched away from him every time he tried to catch her.

"I can fix it!" Vanellope said in a teasing tone, running around and tapping everything in sight with the hammer. Felix looked to Ralph and Calhoun desperately, and Ralph quickly intercepted the rambunctious child's path and pulled her off the ground again.

"Alright, alright," Vanellope said, laughing. "Here's your boring ol' hammer." She handed it to Felix, who shot her a stern look. When Ralph had set her back down on the ground, she took off the tool belt and handed that to Felix as well. "Sorry, I was just messing with ya. I was gonna give it back."

Ralph rolled his eyes. "Quit stealing people's stuff, kid."

Vanellope glitched out of Ralph's grasp and into her kart. "Yeah, yeah. Now c'mon, are we going or not?"

Calhoun nodded, going over to her own kart. "We've got us a talking tennis ball to find," she agreed. Her expression was very serious, and Felix noticed with a pang of worry that Calhoun had more or less been avoiding his eye this entire time.


	3. Chapter 3

As everyone but Felix began to clamber into their karts, the handyman realized that he would have to join someone. After all, he still couldn't drive properly. He glanced at each kart before taking the obvious choice and beginning to scramble into his wife's kart.

"Fix-it," Calhoun barked, causing Felix to start, resulting in him sliding off the hood of the kart. "Why don't you go sit in someone else's kart?" Upon noticing the downtrodden look that crossed her husband's face, she quickly added, "My kart's too small for both of us to fit."

Felix was still hurt, though. It was clear that she wanted nothing to do with him, likely due to his current appearance. And although he understood her attitude towards him (after all, who would want to be married to someone who looked like a little girl?), it didn't ease the pain of her negligence any less.

His second choice had been Ralph, but the big guy already took up his entire kart anyway. And so, Felix was left with his last option: riding with Vanellope.

It's not as if Felix didn't like Vanellope. He certainly got on well with her, and the two tended to bond over being perpetually short. It really wasn't that he didn't like her at all.

It was more that he was petrified of being in a kart with her.

He'd seen her race, and even though she was the best racer in the game, he would still worry for her. She always went a little too fast for his liking. Still, she was his only option, and he had to remind himself that she was an expert.

Felix hopped into the back of her kart, feeling weird sitting behind what looked to be a clone of himself. "Uh, Vanellope?" he began quietly.

"Mmhm?" she hummed in response, her attention currently on the staring contest she and Ralph were in the middle of.

"I was—" Felix was cut off by the sudden rev of the engine, which startled him and caused him to emit an embarrassingly high-pitched squeak of surprise.

"Sorry," Vanellope called back to him, though she didn't sound apologetic in the least. "You were saying?"

"Uh, it's fine, but, I was wondering," Felix tried again, "if you could, maybe, not go too fast?"

A smirk lit Vanellope's face, which was odd seeing upon Felix's actual face. "Can't promise anything, small fry," she said almost mockingly.

"Well could you at least try?" Felix pleaded.

"I don't kn—" Vanellope stopped mid-sentence, gasping. "Ralph did _not_ just start without me! Oh, I am _so_ going to make him eat more dust than he eats for breakfast!"

Before Felix could beg her once more to take it slow, Vanellope slammed on the gas. The kart sprang to life, leaping forward at an alarming rate. Felix yelped, instinctively reaching a hand upward to clutch his hat against his head. However, his hand simply patted his hair, and he felt a few sticky bumps brush against his palm. He pulled his hand back, instead taking to crossing his arms across his chest and curling up into a little ball.

"Little miss, p-please slow down," he cried out, nausea beginning to churn within his stomach.

"In case you haven't noticed, you're the little miss," she called back in response, laughing aloud as she somehow managed to speed the kart up even further.

As she accelerated, something soft whacked Felix in the face. He clawed at it desperately, attempting to pry it off of him. When he finally managed to get a firm grip on it, he pulled it back to reveal that it was his hat. It had fallen off of Vanellope's head. Feeling a tad relieved at having something to hold on to, he pressed the hat against his chest for dear life, curling into it, looking similar to a little kid snuggling a teddy bear. And technically, he was a little kid, which made the resemblance that much clearer.

"You alright back there, cry baby?" Vanellope queried, though no hint of concern was held within her voice.

"I-I would be m-much better i-if you would j-just please slow down," Felix stuttered out in response.

"No way, Dippin Dot! If anything, I'm gonna speed up!"

"Please, no!" But it was too late. The kart must have been going 100 mph at this point. It careened forward, just as they were approaching a hill. The kart effortlessly climbed the hill within a matter of seconds. From the peak of the hill, the castle could be seen, dead ahead. However, the kart was definitely going too fast to just stop in front of the castle. Especially since it was now flying through the air.

As the castle came closer and closer into view, it became more and more evident that they weren't going to make it. They were going to smash straight into the castle wall.

"Vanellope, I told you to stop, and now look, we're going to die! We're going to die!" screeched Felix, latching on to Vanellope's shoulders, practically sobbing into the back of her head.

"I've got it," Vanellope grumbled, seeming irritated by Felix's (very appropriate) panic. All of a sudden, the entire kart flickered, as did Vanellope and Felix. They disappeared from existence for a moment before reappearing on the other side of the wall. The kart made unsteady contact with the ground. It jostled about a bit for a moment as it tried to balance all four of its wheels upon the floor. When it finally steadied itself, Vanellope hopped out, pride shining on her Felix face. "We're the first ones here!"

"We're alive?" Felix whimpered, looking around in disbelief. "Oh my land, thank goodness. I thought we were goners!"

"I told you, I've got it. We weren't in trouble in the first place! With my glitching powers, nothing stands in my way!" she announced triumphantly. Suddenly, the wall behind them bust open, candy bricks crumbling to the ground as Ralph's kart sped into the room. He came to a quick and sudden halt beside Vanellope.

"Sorry about the mess, kid," he mumbled as he stepped out of his kart ungracefully.

"Don't worry about it! Fixo over here can take care of it," Vanellope pointed out, gesturing toward Felix, who had busied himself with forcing his hat onto his head. The ponytail was making it rather difficult, seeing as it would cause the hat to levitate above his head, before shoving the hat to the ground altogether.

Felix stopped what he was doing, the hat halfway upon his head, his gaze traveling toward Vanellope and Ralph. "Oh! Uh, yeah, I can fix it," he said, attempting to mimic his trademark line, though he could tell it sounded weird coming from a voice so unlike his own.

He removed his hat, deciding to give up on it for the moment. He stored the cap between his armpit and chest before slipping the hammer out of his belt loop. At least he still had his belt loop and hammer on his person at all times. That much was good. He started toward the hole, hammer in hand, ready to fix Ralph's mess once more.

Before he could start, however, something crashed through the wall right beside him, sending him stumbling backwards. The hole widened due to the fresh hole that connected with the previous one. Calhoun's kart emerged from the new hole, already slowing down before coming to a smooth stop.

Felix sighed before getting to work. He tapped at the air where the bricks had been, which would gather the sugar particles off of the ground, causing them to reform into bricks. The damage was surprisingly easy to fix, and the castle looked unscathed by the time he had finished with it.

Once Felix had gotten that in order, the group made their way down the long palace halls. Vanellope led the way, speeding along in front of them. She tended to get too far ahead, and a few times the others weren't sure which way she'd gone until she backtracked for them, laughing at them each time it happened for being too slow.

When they finally reached the room Sour Bill was in, they found him sitting around doing nothing. When the little green sphere noticed them come in, however, he hopped to attentiveness.

"Yes, miss President?" Sour Bill said in that monotone voice of his. He looked at Felix expectantly. Felix was confused for a moment, until he remembered that he was in Vanellope's body.

"We need to talk to you," Ralph said, covering for Felix's hesitation. "It's an emergency. Sort of."

Vanellope glitched over to Sour Bill, who gave a startled jump. For all the world it looked like Felix had acquired Vanellope's ability to glitch. "Yeah, it's definitely an emergency if you're callin' Felix the President. That's me, doi."

Sour Bill looked at the other three, his huge eyes full of confusion. "Why's he glitchin'?"

"They switched bodies," Calhoun stated, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What…?" Sour Bill stared at Calhoun as if she had three heads.

Calhoun rolled her eyes. It really wasn't that hard to understand. "These two got into some kind of god awful car crash, glitched themselves up something fierce, and now Vanellope is Felix and Felix is Vanellope." Obviously.

"M'not sure that's possible…" Sour Bill murmured.

"If Turbo was able to change his appearance to look like King Basket-Case, it should also be possible for something like this to happen," Calhoun said with a slight shrug.

Sour Bill nodded slowly, still looking confused. "Oh…well…what do I have to do with it…?"

"You're the only one we could think of who might know enough about code to know what went wrong," Ralph explained further. "You were the closest one to King Candy."

"Oh…he never really told me nothin',"Sour Bill said flatly.

"Nothin' at all?" Felix asked.

"Mmm…well…" Sour Bill thought. "I do remember how to get into the code room, but I've never actually gone in there…I'd be afraid to mess somethin' up." He blinked slowly at them. It was a chore having to listen to his droning voice after a while. "But…I could show you the code room…? If you really wanna see…s'the least I can do, I guess…"

"Thanks, Bill," Ralph said.

Felix nodded in thanks. He would've tipped his hat, if it fit it on his head.

"Lead the way, Sour Drop," Vanellope said, giving him a mock salute with Felix's gloved hand. Sour Bill still looked unsettled by all this, but he led the way regardless.

It took a good bit of time for them to reach the code room. At times it was almost as if they were walking through a maze; it was a well hidden-away room. They crossed a suspended walkway and Sour Bill finally came to a halt in front of a large door.

The little green candy punched in the code, and the group watched as the door slid open.

"King Candy never went in without a rope I could pull him back out with," Sour Bill said slowly.

Peeking into the large dark room, they saw that floating amidst the vast blackness was the glowing tangle of strings and boxes that made up Sugar Rush.

"Hey, Gumball, are there any ropes around here?" Calhoun asked, turning to face Sour Bill.

Seeming unfazed by the nickname, Sour Bill responded evenly, "Uh-huh. There should be a long Twizzler around here somewhere."

It didn't take much searching before Felix discovered the long Twizzler, which had been curled around a part of the railing that surrounded them.

"Right, so who wants to take a shot at going in there?" Calhoun asked, looking each of the three over.

"I wanna go, I wanna go," volunteered Vanellope, waving her hands around ecstatically.

"Oh, no, you aren't," Ralph protested, scooping her up and placing her on his shoulder. "Sorry, Sarge, it's too dangerous for her in there. And plus, I can't go, 'cuz I would break that wimpy little rope."

"You make very good points..." Calhoun mused, scratching at her chin. She closed her eyes for a brief moment, as if she was concentrating on something within her mind. After a few seconds, her eyes opened once more, and she decided, "I'll go."

"W-wait," Felix piped up. "I-I can—"

"No, Fix-it," growled Calhoun, finally looking at him in what felt like ages. "You're... not in the right condition to go."

Felix was tempted to argue, but his wife looked as if she wasn't going to take "no" for an answer.

"Think you could hang on to the rope, Wreck-it?" Calhoun asked as she began tying the Twizzler around her waist.

"Aye-aye, Sarge," responded Ralph in a joking matter, performing a mock salute before snatching the end of the Twizzler that hung from the Sergeant's body.

"Wish me luck," were her parting words before she dove into the dark abyss. The three gathered at the entrance, watching as Calhoun swam towards the mess of boxes and strings. She waded through the boxes, glancing about at them, as if she were trying to find something specific.

Finally, she paused at a box, and appeared to lean towards it in curiosity. She poked at it a few times, and when nothing happened, she grasped it tightly and began to shake it violently. Still nothing. Seeming irate, she continued weaving through the boxes, seeming to inspect each and every one. After a few minutes, she made her way back over to them. Ralph tugged hard on the rope, helping her resurface from the abyss.

She clambered out of the darkness, crawling into the room and hastily getting to her feet, presumably to not seem weak.

"Are you okay, honey?" Felix quipped in concern, which caused Calhoun to cringe slightly.

"I'm fine," she grunted.

"What happened? Did you find anything?" Felix pressed, trying with all his might to forget the fact that Calhoun had been so noticeably disgusted at his term of endearment due to his current state.

"Well, I happened upon some sort of box that was unlike the others. It was coated in red rather than blue, and instead of having words on it, it just had a bunch of strange symbols. There was a wire on it, but it didn't appear to connect to anything," Calhoun explained.

"Do you think that's the glitch thingy mabob?" Ralph asked.

"Wouldn't doubt it. Not sure what to do with it though..."

Ralph looked down at Sour Bill with a serious expression in his face. "You're sure you don't know anything else about Code?" He asked.

"Nope," Sour Bill said simply.

"And you don't know anyone who does?" Ralph pressed.

"Nuh-uh."

Ralph sighed, frustrated. "Could you find someone who knows?"

"Maybe..?"

Vanellope stepped in, sensing Ralph's temper flaring. "As your President, I order you to look for someone who can help us, Sour Bill. Find someone ASAP. You won't let me down, right?"

Sour Bill blinked at Vanellope, still not used to having Felix's face ordering him around. "'Course not," Sour Bill responded after a moment. He didn't look happy to have that sort of responsibility dumped on him, but then again, he never really looked happy at all.

And so the group made their way out of the castle, no more informed than when they'd entered. Ralph slumped against the outside of the castle, deep in brooding thought.

Felix gave a sigh, feeling anxiousness building up inside him. He'd hoped they might've at least gotten a lead from all that. "What are we gonna do?" Felix asked, repeating his question from earlier.

Seeing the panic rising in Felix's—well, technically Vanellope's— eyes, Calhoun quickly spoke up. "We'll figure this out, short stack." She reassured. Felix perked up when he noticed Calhoun was making eye contact with him finally, but he deflated when she diverted her gaze soon after.

"But when the arcade opens, what're we gonna do?" Vanellope asked, a bit of nervousness creeping into her voice at last. "It's not like we can just switch places, can we?"

"You might have to," Ralph said slowly.

Calhoun shot him a look. "That's dangerous, Wreck-it."

"I know, but—"

Calhoun ignored Ralph and barreled on, "We don't know if their games would recognize that their bodies are switched or not. If one of them gets hurt in-game…" she hesitated, voice low and serious. "We don't know what could happen."

"I know." There was a long, uncomfortable pause. "But we're going to have to do something when the Arcade opens."

Vanellope thought for a moment. "What if I just glitched out of the way of the bricks you throw?" Vanellope suggested.

"I'm not sure how long you could fool the gamer with that," Ralph said doubtfully.

"C'mon, I've got my glitch completely under control, Ralph. I bet I could glitch out of the way quick enough that the gamers wouldn't even notice." To illustrate her point, she picked a hefty chunk of candy off of the floor and tossed it into the air, directly over her head.

Before Ralph could so much as blink, much less protest, Vanellope had glitched just a few inches to the right, safely out of the way of the falling candy. Her form glitched only slightly as she did so, but hopefully the player wouldn't notice.

"Alright, maybe that could work," Ralph conceded after a moment. "But what are we supposed to do about Felix?" He gestured towards the fixer, who, although he looked identical to Vanellope, sure as anything wouldn't be able to race like her.

"Well…" Felix said nervously, looking at the ground and rocking on his heels a bit. "The gamers'd be controllin' the kart, so maybe I'd be alright."

Calhoun locked eyes on Felix for the second time in what seemed like forever. "And if you crashed?"

"I could fix it," Felix said, raising his hammer and giving a weak smile. He hoped so, anyway. No doubt he'd be able to fix the kart if it was damaged, but if he himself got hurt bad enough…he shook his head. Too scary to think about right now. "Besides, we might have nothing to worry about if Sour Bill comes through for us, right?" He gave a shaky laugh.

Calhoun and Ralph exchanged a dubious glance. "Let's… just try not to put too much hope into Sour Bill, alright, cadet?" Calhoun muttered, avoiding Felix's gaze once more.

"Aw, c'mon, guys, don't be so harsh. Sour Bill can do it! He'll figure it out eventually," Vanellope said, seeming to have faith in her advisor.

"Yeah, eventually," Ralph grumbled, to which Calhoun inclined her head in agreement.

"You two need to be more positive," Felix insisted.

"Yeah," Vanellope agreed.

"In any case," Calhoun sighed, quickly changing the subject, "we should get a move on. We gotta figure out what to do until this pesky glitch gets fixed."


	4. Chapter 4

Sour Bill didn't come through. 5 minutes prior to the arcade opening, he approached Vanellope cautiously, still seeming uncomfortable with her Felix appearance.

"Miss President," his voice dragged, "my humblest apologies, but I didn't find a solution yet."

Vanellope let out a small sigh before patting him lightly on his green head. "That's quite alright, Sour Bill," she said in one of her faux royalty tones (though it sounded weird when mingled with Felix's southern accent). Then, in a normal voice, she continued, "Besides, it'll be wicked to try out Felix's game! It'll be fun to do something different for once!"

Sour Bill's eyes widened. "But… what about this game?" he croaked.

"Oh, don't you worry! Felix has it handled! I mean, sure, he's a terrible driver, but as long as the player knows what they're doing, he'll be fine."

Sour Bill turned to look at Felix, who was currently sitting atop Ralph's shoulder (probably for nostalgia's sake on Ralph's part), chatting excitedly with his coworker. Calhoun was nowhere in sight, as she likely had left for her own game by now.

"Well… I suppose it could work," Sour Bill grunted, though he seemed displeased with the decision.

"Of course it'll work!" crowed Vanellope, before racing over toward Felix and Ralph. "Hey, Dippin Dot, get off of my coworker's shoulder! We have a game to get to, y'know!"

"Alrighty, little miss." Felix seemed amused. "But first: here, catch." He tossed the belt down to her, the hammer still attached to it. She crouched down before pouncing into the air. She glitched upward, managing to glitch herself into the belt. She landed neatly on the ground, a proud smile on her face. Felix then dropped the cap, which drifted downward before landing square upon Vanellope's Felix head.

Ralph chuckled before carefully setting Felix back onto the ground. "…Be careful," he advised Felix, out of genuine concern. And though one might think he was saying it simply because Felix was in Vanellope's body, and his protective instincts over Vanellope were taking over, he knew that he truly meant to say that to Felix. Because, after all, Felix was like a brother to him, and Ralph couldn't help but care about him as well.

"Thanks, brother," Felix responded, his eyes wide, seeming taken aback by how Ralph's words reinforced how close they were. "I will."

Ralph grinned before scooping Vanellope off the ground and dumping her onto his shoulder. "Seriously, don't hurt yourself. Just let the player take control. It'll be just like dodging bricks and fixing windows… only instead of all that jazz, you're driving."

Felix chuckled nervously. "Y-yeah, I guess so."

"Don't go for first! Just go for whatever place won't kill you!" Ralph continued, his voice getting louder as he headed toward Game Central.

"You got it," Felix shouted after him.

"Seeya, squirt," Vanellope called to Felix before she and Ralph vanished through the archway.

Felix suddenly felt alone and lost, and panic set in. How was he going to do this? Even if he let the player control him, he couldn't use Vanellope's glitching powers. Once the gamers discovered this, would they grow bored of him? And what if he isn't chosen by the players afterward? Then he'd be forced to drive on his own. How would he manage to pull that off? There's no way he'd be able to drive without crashing. And though he had originally thought he could fix the car if it got into an accident, he now fully realized that he was without a hammer, due to Vanellope needing it in his own game. If he crashed, he was probably completely done for.

"Come along, Miss President," Sour Bill addressed Felix, toddling toward the castle. Unable to keep the confusion off of his face, Felix trailed behind the small sour candy.

"Where are we going?" he couldn't help but ask aloud, his gaze surveying his surroundings. Everything was so… pink. And sticky-looking. They had moved off the chocolate dust road, and were now traveling upon the thick frosting that blanketed the ground, likely mimicking grass, although it looked and felt nothing like it. The frosting would squelch beneath Felix's feet if he put too much weight against it.

"To get your kart," Sour Bill answered, seeming much more comfortable talking to the "real" princess. Felix's voice ordering him around had unsettled him somewhat.

"My kart, or Vanellope's kart?"

"The president's."

"Oh… Is it gonna be more difficult to control than my kart?"

"I dunno."

"Do you have a kart?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I dunno."

Felix was starting to get a little frustrated. He had only wanted to have a conversation to ease his anxiety, but Sour Bill didn't do a good job keeping one going. His short, simple answers left Felix with nothing to go off of. And so, Felix fell silent, falling prey to his thoughts once more.

Luckily for Felix, they didn't have to walk for much longer. When they reached the castle, Sour Bill held the door open for him. "Thank ya kindly, there, fella," chirped Felix as he passed through the threshold.

"Mmhmm," Sour Bill hummed in a flat tone before scuttling after Felix.

As they had just been there a mere few hours beforehand, Felix was able to pinpoint the kart in a matter of seconds. He trotted over to it, quickening his pace upon hearing the blaring of trumpets overhead, announcing the opening of the arcade. He appreciated the warning that the royal castle provided.

He reached the kart and hastily attempted to push it forward. It didn't budge. He let out an exasperated sigh and glanced about helplessly. Two rows of Oreo soldiers had marched in, their spears pointed skyward. They were quietly humming to themselves as they began to shuffle between each other, a spectacle that Felix couldn't help but marvel for a moment.

However, after Sour Bill promptly reminded him of the fact that the arcade was opened, Felix felt a sense of urgency take over once more. "Uh… F-fellas!" he called to the Oreo soldiers, who about-faced, watching Felix in assumed expectance. "C-could you lend a hand over here? I can't seem to get my kart over to the starting line."

"Oreo," chanted the soldiers in unison before storming to the kart. Felix hopped out of the way, watching in awe as the soldiers effortlessly lifted the kart above their heads, their spears clattering to the floor. They marched the kart out of the castle, and Felix hurried after them, once again thanking Sour Bill for holding the door open.

The soldiers moved at a surprising speed, singing loudly as they made haste to the starting line. When they reached the red, rectangular box that lay on the ground, they carefully set the kart directly atop the box, causing the box to flash a few times before making a ding noise.

"Thank ya, fellas," Felix called to the soldiers as they marched back to the castle.

He glanced around at the other racers. They were all staring at him, confusion etched on their faces. A girl with a short white bob and a strawberry hat spoke first, "Vanellope, are you okay?"

Felix hesitated. He'd seen that girl multiple times, and heard her name announced over the speakers before and after races. She often came in second place, and she had an arrogant air about her that put Felix off a tad. "I'm just fine…" he faltered before her name finally surfaced on his tongue, "Taffyta."

Taffyta raised a snowy white eyebrow. She looked incredibly suspicious. "Really? You don't sound like yourself."

Oh. Right. Felix would have to act more… little-girl-esque in order to fit in around here. "D… don't question me, Taffyta. I'm the president, remember?" He forced a bitter edge into his voice, hoping to sound as bratty as Vanellope often did.

Taffyta scoffed. "Excuse me for caring," she huffed, turning to face forward in her kart.

Feeling victorious, Felix climbed into his racer. The seat was soft—much softer than his had been. He was able to settle into the kart quite nicely, although nervousness still tingled at the tip of his fingers. He squeezed the steering wheel, ignoring the sharp prick of pain that a large grain of salt inflicted upon one of his fingers.

"Quarter alert," chimed the announcer, his excited voice booming throughout the track. "Quarter alert!"

Then his voice came again, though this time it sounded like it was coming from a distance. "Chews your racer!"

Felix held his breath. _Please pick me, please pick me_, he begged inwardly, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Vanellope von Schweets!" The name rang out. A candy holding a camera floated down so that the lens was pointed front-and-center on Felix.

Uncomfortable with the camera pointed at him, Felix could only manage an awkward smile. Though he usually was good at displaying enthusiasm in front of a player, something about looking right at the camera caused panic to course through his body.

The cameraman frowned at Felix before quickly skirting around the kart, pointing the camera at the back of Felix's head.

"3…" The announcer began counting down._ Oh no_, thought Felix.

"2…" _Here it comes…_

"1…" _Am I sweating?!_

"Go!" All at once, Felix felt an invisible force shove his foot against the gas pedal. The kart lurched forward with a roar, taking off down the road, a cloud of chocolate dust kicking up beneath his wheels.

Felix's hands seemed to turn on their own, willed by the player. He was completely being controlled by the player. Relief welled up within him. He didn't have to do anything. As long as the players kept picking him, as Vanellope had sworn they would, he would be fine.

As long as they didn't notice that Vanellope's ability to glitch was absent, that is.

But, of course, to Felix's luck, they did notice. Felix had steadily remained in 5th throughout the race, and he could hear the player cursing him from behind the screen. He was halfway through the 3rd lap when he heard it. "Why isn't she teleporting?!" snapped the player as they forced Felix to shift gears and slam on the gas violently.

The kart inched toward the back of a chocolate cake kart. The racer in the kart glanced back at Felix. "C'mon, Vanellope, glitch. The player's getting mad," she whispered, slowing her kart down a bit so that her kart and Felix's kart were side-by-side.

"I… I can't," hissed Felix in response.

Surprise lit the girl's face, and she opened her mouth to question him. Out of nowhere, a large glob of vanilla ice cream bowled into the top of the girl's kart, enveloping the racer. The kart violently spun sideways from the impact before screeching to a halt. "A la mode," commented the excited announcer.

_Thank goodness that wasn't me_, Felix thought. However, immediately after the thought hit him, he felt ashamed for how selfish he was being. Then again, that girl would regenerate, whereas Felix wouldn't, so technically he wasn't in the wrong for his semi-selfish thought process.

In any case, he was in 4th place now, his foot pressing as hard as it could against the gas pedal. He was closing in on the child who currently held 3rd, a little boy in a peanut butter cup kart.

_I have to at least get 3rd_, Felix thought to himself. _Or else the players may find me useless and stop using me… and then I'll be left to fair for myself, and that wouldn't end well…_

"H-hey," he called out to the little boy. The boy swiveled his head slightly to the side, so that he could still watch the road and at the same time could better hear what Felix had to say. "Would you please let me pass you?"

The boy scoffed. "Are you kidding? It wouldn't be a fair race if I did that!"

"I… I need to pass you though! So… so please?" Felix felt a whiny edge enter his voice, which, he figured, only made him sound more like Vanellope anyway.

"If you need to pass me so bad, why don't you just glitch past me like you always do?"

"Y-you don't understand! I—" At that moment, the player jerked the steering wheel to the side aggressively. Felix's kart tore away from the little boy's. The player seemed to be attempting to get around the peanut butter cup kart, but Felix simply couldn't go any faster than he already was. Felix shot the boy a pleading look, hoping that he would get the hint and slow down. If Felix just managed to get in 3rd, then he would have a better chance of still being picked. But if he got 4th, then, well, who knew what would happen?

But peanut butter cup kart boy didn't slow down. He shrugged, mouthed an apology, and zipped through the finish line. Felix's kart passed over the line only a moment afterwards. A large number 4 appeared over his head, dancing in a seemingly taunting way.

"I can't believe she didn't teleport," snorted the player. He must have been walking away as he muttered this, for when his voice came again, it was much quieter and from a distance. "What a rip-off."

Felix's kart squealed to a halt at the starting line, and the cameras all turned to face the mountainous letters in the distance that read "Sugar Rush".

"What was all that about, Vanellope?" asked peanut butter cup kart boy as he hopped out of his kart, trotting over to confront Felix.

"Yeah," added chocolate cake kart girl, joining the boy's side. "Why can't you glitch all of a sudden?"

"I…" stammered Felix, unsure of how to explain what was going on. He most certainly didn't want to tell them that he was actually Fix-it Felix Jr. from the game Fix-it Felix Jr., and the real Vanellope von Schweetz was currently residing within his own body. No siree, there was no way he was telling them all of that. "I'm just… I have a cold, is all, and it's… it's hard to glitch when you're sick, y'know?" he lied, fidgeting uncomfortably as all the racers gazed at him. Their confusion immediately shifted to concern.

"You're sick?" gasped chocolate cake girl. "Well, why didn't you just tell us? If you had let us know sooner, we probably could've altered the Roster and you would've been able to sit out of the race today."

_Think like Vanellope_, Felix ordered himself inwardly. "I… wanted to race. I'm… not just going to sit out due to some… silly little illness." Each time he paused for thought, he faked a sniffle, hoping he would sound sick rather than hesitant.

Chocolate cake girl rolled her eyes, though she gave a little giggle as she did so. "Classic Vanellope," she muttered jokingly, and a murmur of agreeing amusement rose up from the other racers.

"Well, how about this?" Taffyta piped up, leaping out of her kart to join the other 2 racers. "Whenever you're not chosen by a player, you can sit out. That way you don't humiliate yourself when you lose to me." There was a glint in her eye, but Felix could tell that she was genuinely concerned; she just had her own snotty way of showing it.

"Yeah, that's a great idea," agreed chocolate cake girl. "You'll be able to get plenty of rest that way! And I'm sure no one will notice if there's only one racer missing."

Felix couldn't deny that this was a great idea. In fact, it was a very good excuse for him to not drive. An excuse that he'd been hoping for in the first place. "…Oh, alright," he said, trying to sound as reluctant as he assumed Vanellope would, despite the delight that sparked through his chest.

The rest of the day was dragged on rather slowly, though. The first player must have advised the other players of Felix's inability to "teleport", because Felix was only picked 3 or 4 more times during the course of the day. Considering about 50 games were played that day, this made for a rather boring afternoon, and most of the time he either watched the other racers or wandered off to investigate the area.

Each time he strayed away from the race track, though, he wouldn't get much time to explore. One of the two police pastries would always sniff him out and proceed to usher him back to the track, insisting that he get his rest, seeing as he was "sick". It was quite bothersome, and only made the day feel even longer.

Often he found himself wondering how Vanellope was holding up within his own body. A few times, he would glance out at the camera as it floated by, hoping to sneak a peek into the arcade and catch a glimpse of his own game. He never did manage to look into the camera for long enough though.

When the day finally came to an end, and the arcade came to a close, relief flooded Felix. He hopped off of the gumdrop he had been perched on, and didn't hesitate to scurry off to the tunnel that led to Game Central Station.

* * *

Vanellope's day, on the other hand, had passed by rather quickly. As Ralph and Vanellope left Sugar Rush and entered the Fix-it Felix, Jr. game, they went over their plan of how they would get Vanellope through the game unscathed.

"The game starts out pretty easy," Ralph said, "All you have to do is climb and fix stuff. Just try not to fall off the building."

Vanellope rolled her eyes. "I wouldn't fall off; I'm great at that stuff. It'd be just like climbing a candy cane tree," she said with a confident nod.

"Yeah, except you have to avoid the bricks. I'll throw as few as I can without making it too easy for the player, but you still really gotta keep an eye out, kid." He gave her a serious look. "You can't space out."

"I won't," Vanellope insisted, "Quit worryin'."

"And you can't glitch too much, alright?" Ralph went on. "Just enough to get away from any bricks you can't avoid. And I'll ask Mary to put out more pies than usual—"

"Ralph, take it easy! What are ya, my dad?"

Ralph glared at her for a moment before his glare weakened at the goofy face she was making, and he had to laugh. "No thanks."

"Aw, whatever, Ralphie," Vanellope said with a laugh, hopping up on Ralph's shoulder out of habit. "You're too gross to be _anyone's_ dad anyw—"

Ralph immediately set Vanellope back down on the ground, a serious expression returning to his face. He quickly glanced around, hoping nobody had been looking their way. Luckily there were only a few people milling about in Game Central Station, and none of them had seemed to notice.

Ralph turned back to Vanellope with a scowl, lowering his voice to avoid being overheard. "I just told you not to space out, kid. You look like Felix, remember?"

"Sorry, it's a habit," she said, looking up at him apologetically. She glanced around as well. "I don't think anybody'd really care, anyways."

Ralph sighed. She was right, they probably wouldn't— but it wasn't something Felix ever really did, and it might look out of place. And he didn't really want to draw attention to Vanellope and Felix's situation until they'd at least figured out what they were going to do.

They were nearing the entrance to Fix-it Felix, Jr. now. Vanellope bounded on ahead of him to avoid any further griping from the wrecker. Soon they were both seated in the little tram-train that took them into the game, and it was only a short distance from there.

Arriving at the Fix-it Felix, Jr. station, Ralph struggled to get himself out of the tram-train seat while Vanellope hopped out with ease. Vanellope tried not to laugh at the wrecker.

"Ho-kay," Ralph said, a little out of breath as he finally hefted himself free from the seat, "Arcade's gonna be opening soon." He gave Vanellope a quick once-over. "You certainly _look_ Felix-y enough." He clapped his hands together. "Alright, let's do this."

Ralph started walking towards the Niceland building. Vanellope followed him, but was beginning to get pre-game jitters. She fiddled her fingers nervously as they walked. "You really think I can do it? What do I do if the players notice me glitching?" She asked. Her mind was suddenly filled with doubts.

Ralph turned around to face her. "What? Don't tell me you're gonna go and get nervous now, kid."

"I think you gave your nervousness to me," Vanellope mumbled. _Thanks a lot, Stinkbrain. _

"Look, you're gonna do fine. Just keep your guard up and glitch if you need to—if the player notices, we'll worry about that then. Okay?"

Vanellope looked up at him and nodded, still not looking entirely convinced.

They entered the Niceland building to explain the situation to the Nicelanders before the arcade opened. It was a bit awkward to explain, but when Vanellope gave a demonstrational glitch, even Gene was forced to believe it was true.

Mary agreed to put out more pies for Vanellope to use, as they would make her invincible in the game for short periods of time. And Ralph quickly briefed Vanellope of what to say when the game started up.

"Just grab the hammer out of the air and say Felix's catch-phrase," Ralph was saying as they exited the Niceland building. "Easy stuff. And don't put too much trust in the player," he continued. "Some of them kind of suck at this. Glitch out of the way if you have to."

"Gotcha," Vanellope said, trying to sound confident.

Not too long afterwards, the Quarter Alert warning started going off. Ralph flashed Vanellope a thumbs up and a reassuring smile, at which she weakly smiled back.

Everyone went to start positions as the game began.

Vanellope stood off-screen, watching Ralph as she waited for her cue. She'd only been in the "Fix-it Felix, Jr." game after Arcade hours, and had never seen the actual gameplay before. She stifled a laugh as Ralph went through his scripted tantrum, shouting out his signature "I'm gonna wreck it!" catchphrase. It was amusing to see, and it cheered her up a little.

She watched as Ralph climbed the building and had it wrecked in a matter of seconds. Then he stood at the top, shaking his fists and shouting angrily. He gave the building an extra stomp for good measure, causing the whole building to shake and a few more windows to shatter.

The Nicelanders popped out of the apartment windows.

"Fix it, Felix!" They called in distress.

Vanellope dashed out into the game, grabbing the golden hammer that had been floating in the air a moment before.

"I can fix it...!" Vanellope said, her voice shaking just a little. Thankfully, the player didn't seem to notice. This set her nerves at ease a little. Maybe the player wasn't the observant type—

Before Vanellope could even finish the thought, she felt herself being pulled in the direction the player was moving the joystick. She automatically jumped and fixed based on the player's commands. The bricks Ralph threw fell slowly, and he made sure to wait a bit before throwing them, so both Vanellope and the player would anticipate it. So far so good.

Level one passed without any problems. Vanellope could feel her confidence rising.

It got a little harder when they got to the levels with the ducks. It was a little tricky to balance, dodge bricks, _and_ avoid flying ducks. But with the help of Mary's pies and Ralph's easy throws, Vanellope managed.

This player was good, though. It must have been her favorite game or something. Soon they were in the higher levels, much to Ralph's unease. Vanellope, however, was unfazed by this point. She was getting used to the swing of this game, and that made her a little reckless.

At one point, she underestimated the amount of time it would take for a falling brick to reach her, and she might've gotten hit if she hadn't glitched out of the way. And another time she got too focused on fixing a window and almost didn't see a duck flying at her in time. She glitched out of its path.

Ralph had a mini heart attack each time something like that happened. He was a ball of anxious worry, though he couldn't show it. That kid needed to be more careful…he knew the game wouldn't end until either the player gave up or won. If the player lost…he shook his head. He didn't want to think about it.

The player herself, though, had noticed Vanellope's glitch by now. When at last she beat the game, and the final medal was awarded, some other kids who had gathered around to watch her play commended her on the win.

The blonde-haired girl just shrugged. "I usually don't make it that far," the player explained. "It's like Felix has a teleporting power like the girl in Sugar Rush, now."

"What?" one kid asked.

"Whoa, how'd you get him to do that?" asked another.

"I didn't," the girl said. "I don't know why it happened."

"Maybe it only affects certain games at certain times," another kid piped up. "'Cause when _I_ was playing Sugar Rush, the princess character wouldn't teleport at all."

The girl pondered this for a moment, but in the end just shrugged again before going off to play another game.

The Fix-it Felix jr. characters tensed as another Quarter Alert immediately followed. Now the other players were curious about Felix's teleporting.

This time, Vanellope tried to focus more and glitch less. Luckily the following players were not as good at the game as the first girl, and most grew bored after a level or two.

To Vanellope, the game was growing pretty tedious, as well. Just fix, jump, dodge. She wished she could be racing instead.

Vanellope couldn't have been more relieved when the day was finally over. Her nerves were on-edge from being in such a dangerous situation, and she was exhausted. She liked jumping and climbing, but not _that_ much. She was used to just sitting in a kart and having it do most of the work for her.

Legs aching, she shuffled over to Ralph's mud puddle where he'd landed multiple times that day. The wrecker brushed himself off, looking over at Vanellope in concern.

"You alright, kid? You didn't get hurt, did you?"

"No, but my legs are killin' me," Vanellope complained as they walked back over to the tram-train.

"I'd bet. The players usually don't make it to the higher levels, but your glitching made it easier. For them, anyway."

"Yeah, I bet even Mr. Jimminy-Jumper doesn't have to hop around this much," Vanellope continued to complain.

"Not usually," Ralph admitted as they got in the tram-train and headed for Game Central Station. They were planning on meeting Felix and Calhoun there before heading back to Sugar Rush, and finding out if Sour Bill had discovered anything else useful.


	5. Chapter 5

When the four met up in Game Central, Felix had the uncontrollable urge to hop up and pull his wife into a huge hug. He sort of attempted this, except instead of hopping up, he simply gripped her leg tightly. Calhoun scowled down at him, and that was enough for Felix to back off, a hurt look crossing his face.

"Right, so," Ralph began, obviously straining to break the tension. "How did Sugar Rush go, Felix?"

"Oh, uh, y'know… alright, I suppose." Felix decided to stray the conversation away from him, not wanting to discuss his failed efforts. He shifted his gaze to Vanellope, a soft grin on his face. "And how did Fix-it Felix, Jr. go for you, little miss?" he queried.

"Pretty good! Tons of players were practically lining up to play when they noticed my glitching powers," she declared triumphantly. "Only, the game got boring after a while. I don't know how you two," she looked to Ralph, then Felix, "don't go crazy doing the same thing every day. I would go nuts! That's why racing is so great; you never know what new obstacle is heading your way!"

"Oh, please," scoffed Ralph, "your game is complete chaos!"

"But that's what makes it fun! Right, Felix? You had a blast, right?" Vanellope looked to Felix hopefully.

Caught off-guard, Felix said the first thing that came to mind. "R-right! Of course I did!" It was a lie, of course. But it was only a little white lie, and sometimes those were necessary to keep people from getting upset.

Vanellope was practically glowing with happiness. "See, Ralph? If Mr. Boring-Same-Thing-Always guy thinks it's a fun game, then it must be true!"

Ralph just sort of shrugged, though he looked at Felix searchingly, as if trying to mentally pry him for the truth. Felix grinned at him awkwardly, and that was enough for Ralph to discern the lie. However, the wrecker didn't comment on it. Likely because he knew it wasn't a big deal in the first place, and they might as well boost Vanellope's spirits.

"If you three are done with your little Who's-Got-It-Made game, it's about time we get a move on. That sour ball might have discovered something new, and the longer we sit here and talk, the closer it is to the arcade opening again," Calhoun spoke up, all business.

"Lighten up, Sarge," groaned Vanellope. "The arcade just closed." She paused. Then, "You know, you've had your armor all up in a knot ever since this whole mess began. You're even more upset than me and Fix-o Jr.!"

Calhoun sort of spluttered, at a loss for words. Finally, she found her voice, and hissed scathingly, "I'm fine. It's just that I seem to be the only one here who is actually trying to get things back to the way they were."

"Aw, Sarge, you don't really think that, do ya?" Vanellope frowned, anger beginning to flood her face. "Clearly we're trying to help out! We're just trying to have a little fun is all! Moping about isn't gonna solve anything, y'know."

"And fooling around will?" Calhoun shot back.

"Of course not! But it keeps us from gettin' all miserable."

"Maybe it's better to be miserable, if it means that you won't keep getting as distracted as—"

"Don't even start with one of those dumb sayings! I'm gonna say what I said before: lighten up, Sarge!"

"I don't need to lighten up!"

"Yes, you do!"

"No, I don't!"

"Yes, you do! You really, really do!"

"Just shut your piehole, Fix-it!" snapped Calhoun. She opened her mouth, as if to keep yelling. And then she noticed the shocked looks on everyone's faces. She stopped, the anger draining from her as she realized what she had just done.

"…I'm Vanellope," Vanellope said slowly, the anger vanishing from her as well.

Silence passed over the group. Felix was squirming in discomfort, clearly unhappy with this whole situation.

"…Well," Ralph loudly broke the silence, as if he were the official Tension Breaker of the day. "let's just… go see if Sour Bill has anything to tell us." With that, he moved to scoop Vanellope up. However, he noticed how upset Felix looked, and realized how awkward it would be to leave the poor guy alone with his distraught (and very pissed-off) wife. So, he proceeded to pluck both Vanellope and Felix off the ground, dumping them upon each of his shoulders.

He started toward the entrance to Sugar Rush. After a few paces, he noticed that the Sergeant hadn't followed him yet. He paused, turning to call over his shoulder. "Coming, Sarge?"

Calhoun was silent for a moment. Then, she quietly responded, "I'll meet you guys there."

Ralph frowned, eyebrows crinkling in confusion. Wasn't she the one who was most eager to find out what Sour Bill had to tell them? Maybe the whole "Fix-it" situation had gotten to her even more than Ralph had assumed. "Suit yourself," he finally said before lumbering over to the entrance to Sugar Rush.

Calhoun watched as they left, feeling rooted to the spot as they headed into the entrance of Sugar Rush.

_I'm an idiot,_ she thought, gritting her teeth, _how can I do this to him?_

Felix glanced back at his wife, concern and hurt displayed plainly on his features, but Calhoun only stared back, unsure of what to do or say.

_I need to apologize to him. But how?_

Her mind raced as she tried to think of how she could fix the situation before they left, but every option seemed absurd at the moment. She didn't so much as wave at Felix in goodbye.

And so Felix turned back around, head hanging. The three of them disappeared into Vanellope's game.

Calhoun continued to stand there, frozen with guilt. It was odd for her, as she wasn't usually the type to hesitate.

* * *

Calhoun's day had been the same as always, more or less. Shooting at hoards of cybugs, keeping her troops in line, and doing perimeter checks in between. The only difference was the feeling of unease that lingered at the back of her mind.

Calhoun was not usually at unease. One might think so, considering the violent atmosphere of her game—and certainly the sergeant was almost always on edge in Hero's Duty—but she was not at unease.

Frankly, she didn't see why she _should_ be at unease. She didn't fear the cybugs. She was not programmed to fear them, after all. They simply filled her with rage, and triggered a deeply-rooted sense of obligation. She'd messed up before and she wouldn't let it happen again.

And yet as Calhoun had entered her game earlier that day, she found she could not shake off the worried feeling she'd acquired ever since Felix and Vanellope's bodies were switched in Sugar Rush. That is, it had started off as concern, but had quickly descended into a feeling of apprehension. And it was obnoxiously persistent.

Her soldiers saluted her in greeting, and she stalked past them as usual. Everyone got into start positions. As Calhoun gave her usual pre-game spiel, she found her mind wandering. She remembered how aloof she'd acted towards Felix earlier, and had to shove down a rising feeling of guilt.

Quarters were inserted into the game, and the gloomy air of Hero's Duty became alive with cybugs. Blaring dubstep music began to play, tempting to distract them, but the soldiers had long since learned to ignore it.

Calhoun guided the first person shooter through the game, helping them fight off the onslaught of cybugs. Doing so usually kept her mind off of things, but there were still brief intervals where her concentration lapsed and she fell prey to her thoughts.

'Honey'. He kept calling her that.

The sergeant shook her head fiercely, trying to focus. She took down a few cybugs that had come up on the first person shooter's blindside.

She'd never had a problem with him calling her 'honey' before; they both used the term. But seeing it come from a nine year old child…

Each time she saw Felix, she became less sure of how she was supposed to treat him now. It wasn't that she didn't still love Felix. She just felt it was unfair, somehow…wrong, even, to be affectionate towards him right now. She felt she had to keep her distance, for both Felix's and Vanellope's sake.

She shook her head agaiin. She'd been doing it for their own good, but it was only making things worse.

* * *

Calhoun was startled out of her reverie when she bumped into someone in the middle of Game Central Station. Apparently she'd started absent mindedly walking around the place, and had wandered far from where she'd been before.

The sergeant excused herself, then looked back towards the entrance of Sugar Rush in the distance. She knew she was being selfish and irresponsible right now. Right now she needed to comfort her husband, not make him feel worse during such a tough time. Making up her mind, she turned and walked briskly back towards Vanellope's game.

* * *

Felix sighed, distraught, as he allowed himself to lean against Ralph's massive cheek. He understood that his wife was so uncomfortable around him, and he wanted to just be able to accept it for what it was. He was in a nine-year-old girl's body; of course she didn't want to be affectionate with him!

Maybe it was just the fact that she couldn't even look at him. It wasn't like he was constantly ogling at her (although he would, if given the chance), so why couldn't she even manage to look into his eyes?

With a twinge of sadness, he recalled the departing glance he had given her before Ralph had stepped through the threshold of Sugar Rush. She had looked so… distant and cold. She had refused to move a muscle, refused to even curl her lip upwards ever-so-slightly or simply nod in acknowledgement at him.

Why did she want to stay back anyway? She was the one who was ever-so-eager to get a move on, just as she usually was. It was unlike her to hang back like that. It was also unlike her to be so unresponsive.

But what bothered Felix most of all was that she had called Vanellope "Fix-it". She had mistaken someone else for him. And despite the fact that it made sense, despite the fact that Vanellope did look and sound like him, despite the fact that Calhoun technically was not in the wrong… it still had hurt him to hear her say it. He had expected her, at the very least, to recognize who was who, even if they didn't look and sound like themselves. He had expected her to know who he was, to know which one was the real Felix.

"Hey, Felix," called Felix's own voice from above Felix's head, snapping him out of his thoughts. He looked up to see Vanellope perched atop Ralph's head, flattening his spiky hair. "You okay?"

"Oh, I'm just dandy, little miss," Felix responded, but his voice held a glum note to it. Vanellope raised an eyebrow, clearly unconvinced.

"Listen, cheesehead, don't go worryin' about Sarge," she said as she rolled onto her back, her feet dangling off the side of Ralph's head. "She's just weirded out cuz her hubby is now an adorable little girl. Once you get this body back," she patted her stomach in indication of Felix's body, "she'll be all over you again. So, seriously, don't worry."

Felix couldn't help the small smile that graced his nine-year-old face. "Thank ya kindly, Vanellope. That means a lot to hear, really." And it truly did. It was nice having someone who cared enough to put his mind at ease.

Ralph came to a sudden stop, and Felix nearly tumbled off of his shoulder. Luckily, he managed to get a good grip on his friend's orange shirt, keeping him from losing his balance. He noticed Vanellope had also nearly suffered a nasty fall, but had used a handful of Ralph's brown hair to help her stay aboard the wrecker's head.

Said wrecker made a grunting noise, Vanellope's violent tug on his hair probably causing him a great deal of pain.

Felix peered down to see what had caused Ralph to halt. At Ralph's feet stood Sour Bill, his jellybean hands splayed behind his back and his gaze boring into Ralph's. "Woah, pipsqueak, you oughta watch where you're going. I nearly crushed you there," chuckled Ralph as he knelt against the ground, using his hands to steady Felix and Vanellope, ensuring they wouldn't fall off.

"Ms. President," Sour Bill directed his attention to Felix, who hastily shook his head. Sour Bill appeared at a loss for a moment before realization lit his gaze. He quickly swiveled around to face Vanellope. "Ms. President," he started again, "I have gathered very useful information upon my trip to Tappers."

"Really?" Excitement glinted in Vanellope's gaze. She hopped down from Ralph's head in order to stand face-to-face with her messenger. "What is it, then? What did you find out?"

"Well," Sour Bill began, "I talked to Tapper, an' he told me that two guys who know about code show up every Wednesday."

"Wednesday?" echoed Ralph. "That's tomorrow, right?"

"Uh-huh," confirmed Sour Bill.

"Welp, that settles it then. We should all set off to Tappers tomorrow to have a little chit-chat with these guys," decided Ralph, standing up once more, Felix still latched upon his shoulder.

"Good boy, Sour Bill," praised Vanellope, patting the green candy's head as if he were an obedient puppy. "I knew I could count on you! Ralph and Sarge didn't think y'could pull through, but see, I knew you could, I just knew it!" she chirruped, dancing around triumphantly.

"Mmhmm," hummed Sour Bill, glaring up at Ralph. Then, the little green ball turned with a huff, scuttling off toward the castle once more.

"Way to go, kid. Now he's mad at me," Ralph grumbled.

"Don't worry about it, Ralphie. He couldn't harm a taffy fly, what, with those plump little arms of his," chuckled Vanellope.

Ralph attempted to keep the grumpy look on his face, but before he could stop it, a light laugh slipped from his throat. Felix couldn't help but laugh as well at the thought of Sour Bill attempting to attack Ralph. His jellybean arms would probably flail about haplessly, a lame attempt at inflicting damage upon the giant man.

The same thought must have occurred to the other two, because pretty soon, they were all struck with a bad case of the giggles.

"What're you three laughing at?" sounded a voice from behind the group. Felix's laughing abruptly ceased and he turned around, only to lock eyes with his wife. She looked a lot less miserable now, and her ice blue eyes were gleaming with the happiness that Felix hadn't seen in two days.

"Ralph made Sour Bill angry," Vanellope explained, glitching past the towering wrecker in order to stand directly in front of Calhoun. "and, can you imagine Sour Bill trying to attack Ralph? He would get his ass—"

"Vanellope," Ralph cut her off, chastising her choice of words.

"I mean butt," sighed Vanellope, before trying again, "He would get his butt kicked."

Calhoun managed a smile, as if acknowledging the humor in the joke, but the ability to laugh seemed beyond her at the moment. She strode over to her husband, plucking him off of Ralph's shoulder. Surprise glinted in Felix's eyes, and he opened his mouth, wanting to ask what she was doing. But she hushed him, pressing an index finger against his lips to silence him.

She then lifted him atop her back, so that his legs were wrapped around her neck and his hands lay gently upon her head. Ralph and Vanellope gazed at the two in shock, not having expected this random burst of affection from Calhoun.

"What?" Calhoun growled, her eyes narrowing, as if daring one of them to question her actions. Instead, the two remained silent, turning their attention to one another instead of the lovebirds.

"So, what should we do now?" Ralph asked Vanellope.

"I've been meaning to drive my car around, actually," Vanellope responded excitedly. "I haven't seen that thing in, like, forever! It's pretty much mandatory that I drive it!"

And so, the four set off to the race track, where three of them would remain in the stands, idly chatting amongst one another as Vanellope took her kart for a spin.

Vanellope didn't try anything too exciting, since her legs were still sore; just some laps around Sugar Rush's shortest track. It wasn't for competition's sake, after all. She just missed driving.

While Vanellope did laps, the other three found themselves relaxing. With all the stress they'd accumulated after the body swap, it was nice to do something normal again. And despite it being a little pointless since there were no other racers, Ralph and Felix cheered on Vanellope every time she crossed the finish line.

At one point, Felix was in mid-cheer when he glanced over at his wife, smiling. When she caught his eye and smiled back—a real, genuine smile— Felix couldn't help but get the honeyglows. It'd been so long since she'd smiled at him like that. Even earlier, it'd seemed a bit forced.

Since Felix had jumped up onto his seat while cheering, he was on eye-level with Calhoun. Looking at her, for a fleeting moment he felt his anxieties leave him. He forgot about his worries. He forgot about the bad situation they'd landed themselves in, and he forgot he was in Vanellope's body.

Not for long, though. The very instant Felix tried to lean forward for a kiss, he ended up with one of Calhoun's gloved hands to his face, gently pushing him back.

"Easy there, cadet," Calhoun said. Her genuine smile had turned stiff and forced once again.

Felix felt his face flush, and this time it wasn't from the honeyglows; it was from pure embarrassment. How could he have forgotten something like that?

The fixer shrunk back, murmuring a string of apologies. He sat down in his seat again, glancing over at Ralph, who seemed like he was trying to pretend he hadn't noticed what had just happened.

There was a bit of an awkward silence. Ralph, sensing Felix's distress, started loudly rooting and cheering for Vanellope the moment she went zooming by. Felix readily joined in, grateful for the distraction.


	6. Chapter 6

The next day, after the arcade had closed, the group arranged to meet in Game Central Station before heading to Tappers.

Ralph and Vanellope came trudging out of Fix it Felix, Jr. Both looked exhausted from the task of keeping the players entertained while simultaneously keeping Vanellope alive. There had been several close calls.

Felix, on the other hand, was having a hard time keeping the Sugar Rush citizens unsuspicious of him. Taffyta in particular didn't really seem to buy his "sick" cover-up, but for now it was the best excuse he had.

As the three gathered next to the entrance to Tappers, they noticed Calhoun had yet to join them.

"Her game might be runnin' late," Felix said as he glanced around the station, trying to locate the sergeant. Finally he spotted her in the distance, trying to weave her way through the crowd as she headed towards them.

"Oh, there she is now!" Felix said, a smile lighting up his Vanellope-face.

Since the three of them were already near the entrance to Tappers, Felix turned to Ralph and Vanellope. "You guys go on ahead, I'm gonna go meet up with Tammy. We'll be right along."

Regardless, Felix knew Tappers tended to get crowded and busy quite fast, so he glanced up at Ralph and added, "Try to save us a good seat, Stinkbrain."

"What?" Ralph said, a mixture of amusement and confusion on his face at Felix's use of the term "stinkbrain".

"Just kidding, brother," Felix said with a slight laugh as he turned to go.

Ralph stared after Felix a moment before shrugging with a bemused laugh. He headed towards Tappers with Vanellope at his heels.

"I wonder who these so-called Code Experts are," Vanellope said as they neared the entrance.

"Me, too," Ralph agreed. "They better know how to fix this mess."

As Ralph and Vanellope passed through the archway that led to Tappers, Felix hurried towards Calhoun, accidentally bumping into quite a few legs as he did so. He was a bit distracted, however, due to mulling over what he had said only a moment ago. For whatever reason, without thinking, he had used Vanellope's nickname to refer to Ralph. He'd never said something like that before though, so it shouldn't have happened absent-mindedly, right? For instance, even if it had been intended as a joke (and it hadn't), he would have been more aware of saying it... right?

As Felix thought, he had stopped in his tracks, his eyes glazing over slightly as he stared into space. A light tap to the stomach caught his attention, and he glanced up to see that his wife was now towering over him, her foot returning to the ground after having given a ginger kick to the fixer's body.

"What're you doing up in the clouds, cadet? Someone coulda stepped on ya," commented Calhoun as she scooped Felix off of the ground, cradling him in her arms and beginning to march toward Tapper's. Though carrying him was normally a display of affection, she was all business this time. Not even a hint of romantic intent sparked from her actions. It was quite discouraging to the little man.

"Ralph and Vanellope are already inside," Felix explained softly as he pressed his face into her shoulder. Rather than the expected feeling of warmth erupting from her shoulder, he instead found that the armor that covered her body was ice cold to the touch. Just as she had been as of late.

Calhoun simply hummed in response, acknowledging the tidbit of information he had fed her. Silence blanketed the two; luckily the Station was quite boisterous, or else it would have been an incredibly awkward walk. As Calhoun entered Tapper's, the stuffy air gave way to a more comfortably warm temperature. The low murmur of the bar was peaceful when compared to the loud rumble the Station's patrons provided.

The two surveyed the crowd, scoping out their friends. They found them perched upon tall chairs at a long rectangular table way in the back of the room, sitting across from one another. They appeared to be in a heated argument. As Calhoun approached the table, their argument was more clearly heard.

"I'm of age now, so you gotta let me at least try _one_ beer. I mean, I'm pro'lly only gonna be in this body for a little while! Might as well let me make the best of it while I can!"

"Vanellope, you're still a kid mentally. There's no way I'm letting you have a drink! 'Sides, you should really get Felix's consent before trashing his body."

"So Felix is allowed to get drunk in _my_ body, but I can't get hammered in _his_?" Vanellope had been glaring daggers at Ralph, but she now dissolved into giggles at her unintended pun, mumbling the word "hammer" to herself in between bouts of laughter.

Ralph raised an eyebrow, though a smile was slowly creeping up on his face. "See what I mean, kid? You're laughing at the word 'hammer'. I think I rest my case."

"Aw, that doesn't mean anything, brother," Vanellope protested, her laughing fit subsiding.

Upon being called 'brother', Ralph's smile fell. "Talking like Felix won't convince me either," he said, suddenly completely serious.

Felix noted that Vanellope was looking down at the table now, as if deep in thought. Calhoun was now at a stand-still beside the table. She dumped Felix into the seat beside Vanellope before moving to sit beside Ralph. Felix glanced over at Vanellope. She almost looked... upset. "You okay there, little miss?" Felix asked, comfortingly placing a hand on Vanellope's shoulder.

Her head snapped up and she turned to him. For a split second there, it seemed as if she was deeply troubled by something; sadness swam in her baby blue Felix eyes. But it vanished almost instantaneously, and an amused look quickly replaced it. "I'd be better if Ralph would just let me have a beer," she grumbled, a smirk playing on her face as she shot a meaningful look toward the wrecker.

"We already went over this, kid," Ralph groaned, seeming exhausted. "I'm not arguing with you about this again. What I said was final." He then looked over at Calhoun, as if noticing her for the first time. "What took ya so long, anyhow?" he asked her almost accusingly.

"A blasted cybug didn't make it to the beacon before it shut off. Had to track the mangy thing down and crush it like the pathetic creature it was," growled Calhoun through gritted teeth, her blonde eyebrows knitting together. She glared at a stack of napkins in front of her, as if she were once more looking at the sole surviving robotic bug.

An awkward silence soon followed, and of course, Ralph was the one to break it. "So, who wants to bet these Code-Guys stand us up?" he snorted, his gaze drifting lazily about the bar.

"Hey, now, have some faith," Felix quickly defended the unknown coders, frowning at Ralph's negativity. "I'd bet anythin' they're just runnin' late. The Station was jam-packed!"

"Sure." Ralph rolled his eyes. "Then why are we here before them?"

"Well, we don't know what game they're comin' from, for one," Felix pointed out. "Their game could be all the way on the other side of the arcade! Plus, they might've stopped to mingle with some buddies or side-tracked to get a snack or somethin' of the likes. It's not like they're expectin' to meet us, y'know."

"I guess," grumbled Ralph as he carefully plucked a napkin off of the stack that sat in the center of the table. He tore the little corners off, shaping the napkin into a large mishapen circle. He then crumpled the circle into a ball and tossed it behind him carelessly. The whole time he did this, he stared at Felix, as if doing all this with the intent of irking the fixer.

If that had been his goal, then he had been successful. Shooting a tiny scowl at the wrecker, Felix scrambled out of his seat, hurrying over to the ball of paper. He gathered it in his arms as if it were a wounded animal. He then rushed to a trash can, carefully dumping it inside. As he headed back to the table, he could tell from the way that Ralph's shoulders were shaking that the wrecker was cracking up at him.

"That wasn't funny, Ralph," Felix huffed as he struggled back into his seat. Whereas Calhoun usually went out of her way to help him, this time, she didn't even budge from her seat. When Felix managed to settle into the chair, he noticed that Calhoun's attention was somewhere else. He hoped that, rather than not wanting to help, she had simply been too distracted to even notice his small struggle.

"Hey, fellas," a familiar voice called from afar. Tapper shuffled over to their table, a large smile on his mustachioed face. "The Coders are here. Still want me to send 'em to your table?"

"Yep, send 'em on over," Ralph answered with a small nod. "And, hey, thanks a bunch for all of this, Tapper."

"Not a problem, Ralph," Tapper answered with a short dip of his head. "Oh, and before I go over there, why don't you all tell me what you'd like to drink real fast?"

After giving Tapper their beverage orders, the four watched as he hurried over to two rather short-looking men. He gestured to their table as he told them something, and the two short men nodded before starting over towards their table.

As they approached, Calhoun joked to Felix, "These two are right up your alley, short-stack."

But Ralph and Vanellope had both bristled, their faces knitting into scowls. Even Felix was staring, but he looked more shocked than angry, his Vanellope-eyes as wide as saucers. Calhoun frowned at her friends, a confused look rising to her face. "...Am I missing something here?" she asked, her voice hushed, seeing as the two short men were nearly at their table.

"Turbo," Ralph spat as he glared at the two, his shoulders raising slightly, as if he were ready to lunge at them.

"Woah there," one of the two short men said, lifting his hands up defensively. "No need to stoop to such name-calling, friend."

"Yeah," the other piped up, "we may be a lot of things, but we are no Turbo."

"You sure look a lot like 'im," Ralph commented skeptically, raising an eyebrow, though he seemed to have lost some of his hostility.

And indeed, they were almost identical to the infamous racer; their skin was just as pale as his had been, and their teeth were just as rotten. However, rather than bearing white racing uniforms, theirs were a dark blue. The two must have been twins, for they looked exactly like one another; the only tell-tale sign of who was who was the letters upon their helmets. The first man had a T upon his, while the other had an F.

"Yes, well, we are from his game," explained the first man, the one with the T. "The name's Ted," he introduced himself, before gesturing to his counterpart, "and this is Fred."

"Oh, hey," Fred suddenly said, his gaze snapping to look at Vanellope. "I remember you! You're that fixing guy!" He grinned widely, jabbing Ted in the side with an elbow. "Teddy, you remember this guy, don'cha?"

Ted nodded slightly. "Ah, yes, Felix, was it? Nice to see you again." He, too, grinned. "How's your game coming along? I heard you're still quite the popular lad, as is your game."

"Uh, actually," Vanellope began nervously. "I'm... not Felix. He is." She pointed at Felix, who waved slightly, a nervous smile on his face.

The twins stared in disbelief for a moment. Fred burst out into obnoxious laughter. "Yeesh, fixing guy, since when did you become a joker?"

"He... uh, she... she's not joking," Ralph said, a grim look on his face. "These two," he swept a hand in front of Vanellope and Felix, "got into a terrible car crash. They went flying through the air, slammed into each other, blacked out, and when they woke up, bam, they were in each other's bodies. That was a few days ago. They've been this way ever since."

Fred's laughter stopped abruptly, his eyes as wide as saucers. "A car crash?" he echoed, surprise tainting his voice. "Wow, ain't that—"

"Fred," Ted cut in, placing a hand against his counterpart's shoulder, effectively shutting Fred up. "Don't say anything yet." He looked up at the four, a curious expression etched in his face. "May we take a seat?" he asked politely, to which the four all nodded.

Fred and Ted helped each other into their respective seats; Fred had the pleasure of sitting beside Felix, and he stared at the fixer's 9-year-old-girl body for a while. Felix squirmed a bit, uncomfortable with the attention.

"Ted, this is some'a that freaky code shit at work here, ain't it?" Fred asked, finally tearing his gaze away from Felix.

"It definitely seems that way," Ted answered with a nod. "But before we jump to conclusions, Tapper _did_ tell us you wanted our help. So why don't we hear from one of you four first?" He looked around at the four, waiting for an explanation.

"Well, uh," Felix piped up, edging closer to Vanellope slightly upon feeling Fred's stare burn into his side once more, "it's pretty much just as Ralph said. We had a feelin' that this whole body-switchin' thing here had somethin' to do with code. And Tapper told us he knew of a few fellas who knew quite a lot about code. And so... here we are." He gestured around them and then gave a tiny, satisfied nod.

Just then, Tapper swung by and dropped off the round of root beer they'd ordered, as well as a nonalcoholic version of the beverage for both Vanellope and Felix.

"Hmm," Fred murmured, taking a swig of his root beer and staring into space with a thoughtful expression on his face. Ted wore a similarly thoughtful expression, and neither of them said anything for a while. The other four waited anxiously for the twins to continue.

"Well," Fred spoke up finally, "It's no easy fix, that's for sure. Shit like this is real uncommon. Ain't that right, Ted?"

"It's true," Ted said with a nod, "only heard of one, maybe two other cases of it in all the years the Arcade's been open. And those could easily just be rumors… only seen one case of it with our very eyes. And in that case, the two people that got switched were both from the same game." The grey-skinned racer glanced knowingly at his brother.

"And that's us!" Fred declared with a laugh, slapping the table in amusement. "Happened the same way it did with you two, actually. Ain't that a coinkidink."

Felix and Vanellope exchanged glances before turning back to the twins. "You two switched bodies?" Vanellope piped up. "How come? When?"

Ted glanced around the bar and lowered his voice a bit. "It was back before Turbo got our game unplugged," Ted explained, his expression turning more somber.

"We got ourselves in a real bad crash," Fred continued, gesturing at Felix and Vanellope, "like you two. Funny thing is, we didn't even notice when it happened. Just kept on drivin'." He chuckled at the memory.

Before they could continue, Tapper came around again to ask if they wanted anything to eat. After some food had been ordered, Calhoun glanced at the twins. "So how did you fix it?" she asked.

Fred peered down into his nearly-empty root beer mug as if he expected it to refill just by looking at it. "A lot of fiddlin' with the code," he said. "We found Turbo Time's code room and figured out how to get us back in our proper bodies through a lotta trial and error."

"Figured out some stuff about code, too," Ted added. "Not as much as Turbo, probably—the obsessive freak—but enough."

Felix stared up at the twins, hope shining in his Vanellope eyes. "So, then, you could get us back in our proper bodies, right?"

"We could," Ted said, though he looked a bit hesitant.

Ralph shot Ted a look. "Are you saying you won't?" He asked, a bit of a threat in his voice.

"Look, pal," Fred interrupted, pointing at Ralph with his root beer mug still in hand, "This stuff ain't easy for the person doing the code fiddlin' or the person gettin' their code fiddled with," he said. "It's risky to tamper with code, and it hurts like hell if something goes wrong."

"And it could be especially tricky since you two are from two different games," Ted said. "We're just warnin' ya, is all. But honestly, if everything goes well, it'd be a lot better than the side effects of staying switched." Ted stared at his drink in order to avoid the gazes of the others.

"S-side effects?" Felix squeaked.

Tapper came over and dropped off the food they'd ordered, and the twins were grateful for another excuse not to make eye contact as they accepted their meals.

"The exact effects vary from person to person," Ted said while Fred dug into his food, "so there's no telling what'll happen. But basically the glitch itself starts to take over, and…it can get pretty nasty."

Vanellope's eyes widened at the thought of being taken over by a glitch. Even before, when she hadn't fully been in control of her own glitch, it wasn't as if it controlled her.

The group lapsed into silence as the twins' words sunk in. Calhoun noticed that Felix hadn't touched his drink, and was just halfheartedly poking at his French fries. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. Felix glanced up at her and smiled.

The rest of the meal was somewhat awkward. Not much was spoken. 10 minutes prior to the arcade opening, the group got to their feet, shook hands with the twins, determined that they would be back next Wednesday, and shuffled out into the station, squinting, the transition from the dull lights in the bar to the bright lights of the Station a bit disorienting.

Vanellope and Ralph bid a somewhat glum farewell to the couple before heading off to Fix-it Felix Jr. The two hesitated a moment, eyes locked on one another. Finally, Felix muttered quietly, "I'll see you later, Tammy."

He turned, starting toward Sugar Rush. Before he could take even two steps toward the game, he felt someone's arms snake around his waist. Calhoun pulled him into a tight embrace. "Good luck, cadet," she whispered. Felix's heart fluttered, and right as he was about to ease himself into the hug, his wife pried her hands away from him and got to her feet.

Felix could only watch as she sauntered to her game. He hadn't expected her to spare a glance behind her, and when she did, he felt honeyglows begin to beat down on his cheeks.

And then she was gone, safely within her own game. Felix stared at the archway of Hero's Duty for a few seconds before letting out a small, love-struck sigh. His spirits extremely high, he trotted toward Sugar Rush, a newfound skip in his step.


	7. Chapter 7

After the arcade closed, the group gathered in Game Central once more. They knew they hadn't gathered nearly as much information as they had been hoping to; the twins, unfortunately, didn't have all too many helpful tips. But luckily, they promised they would figure out all that they could about code, so that by the time they met up once more next Wednesday, they would hopefully know enough in order to at least begin to tamper with the code.

The four felt lost at this point. Normally, they would head down to Sugar Rush and sort of hash things out there. But today, there seemed to be no point in going. The process of getting Vanellope and Felix back to normal was almost at a complete stand-still.

Finally, Felix suggested, "Why don't we just do what we used to? Vanellope races 'round the track, and the rest'a us sit back and watch."

There was a smidgen of hesitation before everyone had to agree. It wasn't like there was much else to do. And besides, they still had Felix and Vanellope; they were still the same group of people that they'd always been. It was just that two of the people had switched bodies. But otherwise, everyone was accounted for. So why not do what they always had?

And so they entered Sugar Rush, Vanellope on Ralph's shoulder and Felix on Calhoun's back. Just like old times.

They approached the race track, and before Vanellope could climb her way off of Ralph's shoulder, Felix had hopped off of Calhoun's back and began to bound toward Vanellope's kart. "Hey, guys, d'you think I could race for a bit?" he asked, his young hazel eyes pleadingly peering up at the two adults.

Without waiting for an answer, the fixer then hopped into the kart, hastily pressing the button that started the engine.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" snapped Vanellope. "That's my kart, marshmallows-for-brains! Get out!"

She charged over to Felix and yanked him out of the kart. For a moment, there was a little bit of a scuffle, as he whined and attempted to push his way past her, clawing desperately at the side of the kart.

"Stop it! Have you gone crazy? You're not good at drivin', remember? You don't even _like_ to drive," she snarled at him, shoving him violently to the ground. As his back connected with the ground, his eyes widened, and for a split second, he was blank-faced, as if he had no idea what was going on.

With a short chuckle, he got to his feet, brushing himself off. "S... sorry about that, litle miss. I don't know what gotta hold'a me." With an apologetic smile, he then regrouped with Calhoun and Ralph, who were staring at Felix in pure confusion. He smiled nervously up at them, giving a small shrug to reinforce that he didn't know what had happened.

Luckily, the two shrugged back, brushing the event off with ease. But if they were being really honest, all of them were fretting a bit about it. They were almost in denial of what had just happened, and were forcing themselves to truly believe it wasn't a big deal, despite the fact that they could tell it sort of was.

Vanellope scrambled into her kart and tore off down the track. The three watched as her kart disappeared into the distance.

"Let's go up into the bleachers," suggested Ralph, already starting up the steps that led to the rows of benches. Calhoun trailed after him. Felix, however, faltered, staring down the track at the bend that Vanellope had vanished around. At the moment, the thought of driving was absolutely undesirable to him.

But, for whatever reason, only a few minutes ago, he had wanted to jump into that kart and speed off down the track. There had been a burning passion flaring within him, and his legs had been literally itching to press down on a gas pedal and peel out down the road. He wondered how a desire so strong could have taken over for a short amount of time, and then simply disappeared without a trace.

"Fix-it," called Calhoun, snapping Felix out of his short string of thoughts. He glanced up at his wife, who beckoned him with a short wave of the hand. He forced a smile and trotted up the steps to join Calhoun and Ralph.

"Sorry 'bout that," he muttered as he settled onto the bench in between the two, leaning against his wife ever-so-slightly.

They sat in mostly silence, which was admittedly quite comfortable. Every-so-often, Ralph would attempt to start off a conversation with something lame, such as "This game has really nice weather" and "So how have you guys been, aside from all this cooky body-switchin' junk?" and occasionally something really random like "Are these bleachers candy too? I wonder what kinda candy, if so. Maybe wafers? Kit-Kats? I dunno, what do you guys think?"

But every time he said something of this nature, Calhoun would lash out with a short, snippy answer. It was always slightly aggressive, and Ralph would mumble something akin to "Sheesh" or "Sorr-ee" before falling silent for a while.

Finally, after each of the three had nodded off at least once, Vanellope's kart screeched to a stop. It purred for a moment before becoming completely silent. With a grunt, Vanellope hopped out of the kart, bounding up the bleachers and practically throwing herself upon Ralph's shoulder. "I'm bored now," she declared. "Let's do something else."

Ralph raised an eyebrow, an odd mixture of irritation and amusement crossing his gaze. "Well, alrighty then, your royal pain-in-my-thigh-ness. What were you thinking?"

Vanellope tilted her head upward to stare at the sky; luckily, quite a few cotton candy clouds were peppered about, blocking the bright sun and preventing her from momentarily losing her vision. She stared hard at a particular cotton candy cloud; it somewhat resembled a bunny rabbit, which distracted her for a moment.

Finally, an idea struck her. "Why don't we go down to Soft-Serve Summit and have a snowball fight and make snowmen and stuff?"

"That sounds like fun," agreed Felix as he slid off of the bench. Ralph got to his feet as well, lumbering down the stairs and starting toward the snowy area that was visible from a distance. As Felix started to follow Ralph, he felt his feet leave the ground. He flailed about wildly for a moment, becoming panicked, before he realized that Calhoun had scooped him up. Feeling relieved, he allowed her to slip him upon her back, where he clung gingerly to her blonde hair.

The group made their way up to the snowy mountains. It really was starting to feel like old times again. The brief little fiasco that Felix had brought up a while ago was behind them. It was as if things were back to normal.

But then Vanellope's gaze shifted toward Calhoun's face. And lingered. An uncharacteristically smitten smile crossed her face, her cheeks growing pink. "Wow, the light really catches your eyes in the most breathtaking way, darlin'," breathed the little girl, her azure Felix eyes never leaving Calhoun's face.

Everyone froze. A split second after the words left Vanellope's mouth, her face fell, and she tensed. An awkward silence quickly followed, and Vanellope let out a tiny, forced laugh. "I was... joking," she lamely attempted to play it off, but there wasn't even a hint of amusement in her eyes.

A jumble of emotions flickered within Calhoun's eyes, a taut frown on her face. Her whole body was stiff, her eyebrows knitted together. She looked as if she was unsure of how to react, unsure of what to say. "E... excuse me?" she finally choked out, her expression finally settling on a mixture of anger and sadness.

"I-I... It... was a joke," Vanellope stuttered, her eyes darting about, trying to look anywhere but directly at the Sergeant.

"You..." breathed Calhoun. She paused, grinding her teeth for a moment as she stared hard at Vanellope. "Don't... don't ever joke like that again," she finally managed, her voice wavering.

"I'm... I'm sorr—" Vanellope began, but Calhoun quickly cut her off.

"I mean it, Vanellope! Don't you _ever_ joke like that again!" she snapped, her voice harsh and strained. "Do you hear me?!"

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry," whimpered Vanellope, flinching back, her eyes beginning to water. "I... I'm really sorry."

"Tammy," Felix yelped, his voice shaking immensely upon witnessing his wife push a child to tears. It wasn't just his voice, however; his entire body began to shimmer. He was so overwhelmed with distress that he felt his actual form begin to react; it felt as if hundreds of angry ants were marching up and down his skin, tearing at the seams of his Vanellope body, stripping away his appearance and revealing the blue 0's and 1's that lay underneath.

Fear sparked within the other three as they watched Felix's 9-year-old body flicker in and out of existence, his mint-green jacket breaking away, replaced by large chunks of blue numbers. Calhoun hastily set him upon the ground, and they all watched upon baited breath as he cringed at the uncomfortable and prickly feeling, an occasional groan of pain slipping from his throat.

Vanellope clambered off of Ralph's body, throwing herself against Felix, wrapping her arms tightly around his unstable form. She, too, was then blanketed in blue numbers, though she was unaffected by the pain that accompanied it. A few heartbeats later, she broke away from his grasp, worry swamping her features as she faced Calhoun and Ralph.

"He's glitching."

Those two words were all Vanellope needed to say before the two adults transformed into anxious parental figures. They gathered around Felix, uncertainty painted on their faces as they unsuccessfully attempted to comfort him, hoping to ease the glitch out of him.

"Felix," Vanellope shouted, squeezing in between Calhoun and Ralph in order to place herself in front of the glitching figure, "you gotta pull yourself together. I know you're pro'lly freakin' out, on account of this whole glitching thing. But the only way to make it stop is to calm down. So just calm down, okay? Think of something nice and peaceful, like, uh... the beach."

Somehow, it appeared that the glitch attack became more violent, and a strangled cry of pain left Felix's throat.

"Why is he glitchin' so bad? This never happened to you," Ralph said loudly, panic mingling with his voice as he hovered his large hands above Felix's figure, as if trying to coax his poor friend with the comfort of safety.

"Well, actually, the first time I glitched, it really was this bad. 'Cuz he doesn't have much control over it yet, and it strikes when a strong feelin' overcomes you," Vanellope explained, seeming much more calm than she should have been. She then turned her attention back to Felix. "C'mon, ya Dumbotron, stop thinkin' about sharks or whatever. I said something peaceful! Think of... a puppy, or a kitten, or..." She glanced about, searching for inspiration. Her gaze fell upon Calhoun. "Oh! Think of your lovely wife kissing you on the cheek," she coached, a cheeky grin crossing her face.

"Aw, c'mon, kid, stop messin' arou—" Ralph began, but he stopped short when he noticed that the glitching had eased up a bit, light strokes occasionally jolting Felix's body. Finally, the glitching died down altogether, and relief temporarily flooded Felix's gaze, before utter exhaustion took over and he collapsed upon the chocolate powdered road, panting heavily.

Calhoun gathered her husband up in her arms, pulling him into an extra-tight embrace as she rubbed circles on his back. "There, there, cadet," she whispered comfortingly. A quiet, grateful hum left the fixer's tiny body, and his breathing became deep and rhythmatic. Ralph and Vanellope were respectively silent, watching the two for a moment. It wasn't long before Felix had fallen asleep.

Content with herself, Calhoun cradled the snoring Felix in her arms.

"What do we do about everything that just happened?" Ralph hissed as he helped Vanellope back onto his shoulder. "This is starting to get really outta hand. These two have been actin' kinda weird, almost... almost like each other. And... and now Felix is glitching!" His voice rose a little in panic, and Felix stirred in Calhoun's arms. The Sergeant fixed Ralph with a stern look, hinting that he should quiet down. "Sorry," Ralph grumbled, voice hushed once more. "But seriously though, Sarge. What do we do?"

She was silent for a moment, contemplating his question. Finally, she lamely whispered in response, "I hate to say it, Wreck-it, but I have no idea. We're as lost as a puzzled fly that strayed into a garden shed." She sighed, glancing about the game. "I don't think I should leave him unattended, though. He hasn't been racing, anyway, so he might as well stick with one of us." She hesitated, before reluctantly adding, "Unfortunately, it's too dangerous in my game for him to accompany me."

Ralph frowned. "I know," he muttered, rubbing the back of his head with one large hand. "Guess we should take him back to the Niceland apartment then, huh? That might be our best bet, anyhow. I'm sure some of the Nicelanders wouldn't mind watchin' over him. Wouldn't be much of a difference from their usual lives anyway. 'Cept that he doesn't _look_ like Felix anymore. But still, I'm sure that won't matter."

Calhoun was quick to agree with this solution. After all, Felix's home was in the Niceland apartments; he surely would feel most at ease in the safety of his home. And maybe, just maybe, if he took a nice, long nap, he'd feel better when he awoke. Maybe he wouldn't glitch again. Maybe this all was just some silly dream Felix was having and none of it was even happening in the first place... and maybe when he awoke, everything would be completely back to normal.

Calhoun couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the ridiculousness of that last thought. _Don't get your hopes too high, soldier,_ she chatised herself.

The group headed back to Game Central Station, only two of them awake now; Vanellope had dozed off as Calhoun and Ralph were discussing the situation at hand. Calhoun accompanied Ralph and Vanellope into Fix-it Felix Jr., mostly just to see Felix off. However, he was still fast asleep, and she didn't want to wake him for no reason. So she planted a light kiss to his forehead in farewell, waved goodbye to Ralph and Vanellope, and set off to her respective game.


	8. Chapter 8

The weekend was upon them, and the rush of kids eager to spend the day playing video games was inevitable. This always tended to be a stressful time for video game characters; it was the busiest part of the week. And on top of that, Felix and Vanellope were only getting worse.

Felix mostly rested to try and minimize the chance of glitching, while Vanellope tried her best to act the part for the hoard of kids lining up to play the game. She did decently on Friday—there were a few slip-ups, but for nothing too drastic. But it was clear she was struggling to keep up.

They tried not to worry too much about it, as Felix's problems were worrying enough already. But Ralph couldn't help but be concerned when, instead of using the glitch more to accommodate for the large amount of kids, Vanellope seemed to be using it less.

She was dodging and weaving the bricks like a pro, but it was like she refused to glitch unless she had to. At the interim between games, Ralph picked himself out of his mud puddle and craned his neck up at the Niceland apartment, catching a glimpse of Vanellope at the top. Wrought with worry, Ralph called up to the little Felix look-alike.

"Hey, kid, what're ya doing?"

Vanellope peeked over the edge of the building, straining her eyes to see the little red dot that was Ralph. "What?" She hollered back.

Ralph cupped his hands around his mouth so she could hear him better. "You gotta use your glitch, kid! I don't care if the players notice, it's too risky otherwise!"

"I'm tryiiing," Vanellope whined. Ralph put a hand to his ear to show he couldn't hear what she was saying, and in response Vanellope hoisted herself over the ledge and carefully hopped her way down the building until she was standing in front of Ralph. "I said I'm trying," she repeated. "My glitch isn't working right!"

"What? Why?"

"I don't know!"

Ralph stared down at her for a moment, at a loss for what to say. When he finally opened his mouth to say something, a Quarter Alert cut him off.

"I can still glitch," Vanellope assured him. She was probably trying to reassure it to herself, too. She took off Felix's hat and avoided eye contact as she fiddled with it. "It just keeps gettin' wonky. Like, it won't always happen when I want it to."

"Are you sure you're able to keep playing?" Ralph asked. He tried to appear calm, but was unable to keep the concern out of his voice.

"Well, I gotta, don't I?" Vanellope asked in exasperation, flailing her arms about. There was a tired look on her face that wasn't hard to miss, even when she still refused to look him in the eye.

Ralph knelt down to her level. "Vanellope, look at me," the wrecker said softly. After a moment she reluctantly complied. As hard as Vanellope tried to hide it, Ralph could tell the kid was scared. He could see it reflected in the blue eyes that weren't hers.

"I'm more worried about your safety than getting our game put out of order for a little while," Ralph stated firmly.

Vanellope just stared back up at him, unsure how to respond to that. After a while she looked away again and placed Felix's cap back on her head, a look of resignation on her face. She couldn't just let Ralph's game go out of order. This wasn't just about her.

"I'll be fine, Ralph," she insisted, putting on a smile to show it.

Ralph looked a little dubious, but he just nodded and let it go. He'd just have to trust her judgment on this one, she knew her glitching abilities better than he did.

As he turned to head over to his start position, Ralph glanced up in time to see a blonde haired girl appear on the game's screen. He groaned, smacking his hand to his face. _Just what we need right now_, he thought to himself sarcastically. _This kid's a pro at this game._

Everyone was stiff and anxious as the game started up. Especially Vanellope, it seemed. Ralph couldn't help but notice that she was having an even harder time dodging bricks and keeping her balance._ C'mon, kid_, he mentally urged, _don't let the player psyche you out!_

Ever since Vanellope's first game in Fix-it Felix Jr., Ralph had taken to throwing the bricks in a wide arc so that they made flew over Vanellope's head before dropping. That was all well and good, since from the gamer's perspective, they couldn't see the difference—but Ralph couldn't do anything about the ducks when they got to the higher levels.

Vanellope was becoming more and more hesitant as the number of ducks increased. Ralph could see that she was relying too much on the player, who, though skilled, wasn't perfect either.

Whenever the player started slipping up and failed to dodge the flying ducks properly, Vanellope struggled to jump out of their path. Ralph was contemplating whether it would be worth it to risk aiming a brick at a few of the ducks when it happened.

Vanellope had been getting increasingly frustrated with her glitching ability. She kept attempting to teleport before resorting to manually jumping out of the way, but more often than not her teleporting powers failed her.

A few of her pixels sparked whenever she tried, but not much else. It felt like a dying flame. And worst of all, she was pretty sure she knew why it was happening. Vanellope didn't want to accept it, but the truth was creeping up on her.

Felix was taking on her glitch, and she was losing it.

Vanellope was so lost in her thoughts that she barely noticed the duck flying in a haphazard path towards her. She didn't react in time, and neither did the player.

Ralph watched in horror as Vanellope was knocked from the windowsill. She flailed about as she fell, trying to grab onto a ledge, a windowpane, anything—but the game wouldn't let her.

Ralph broke character and lunged off of the ledge he was standing on, barreling his way downwards towards Vanellope. He'd never scaled the building so fast. He managed to catch up to her, thrusting his arms out to catch her, but she passed right through his oversized hands.

The game wouldn't let her touch anything that could break her fall. It knew she had lost a life, and the game had to follow through with that. It was in the code.

As Ralph watched Vanellope fall towards the ground, helpless, he felt his heart plummet with her.

* * *

Vanellope lay at the bottom of the Niceland building. She was on her back, gloved hands grasping a flower the same way Felix did whenever he died in-game. Ralph reached the bottom of the building not long after, rushing over to her and pulling her off screen.

Once away from the player's prying eyes, Ralph laid Vanellope down on the dewy grass, looking her over. Looking for any sign of life, despite the odds.

The wrecker then looked around desperately at his surroundings, for anything that might provide a solution. His brick pile, the little tram train station…everything was familiar, but he'd never felt more lost.

Ralph turned back to Vanellope and gently touched her face, hands shaking. Her skin was cold. Vanellope continued to clasp the flower, lying still as a stone. She looked like Felix to a T, but Ralph knew she wouldn't be waking up. She never would.

He felt his eyes welling up with tears that he struggled to fight back. A pained, choking noise escaped his throat, his large frame shaking with sadness as he sat hunched over Felix's small form.

She was only a kid.

When Ralph opened his eyes again, his tearstained vision was so blurry that he almost didn't notice Vanellope's body glitching.

It was only a sparking of pixels at first, but soon her entire form was glitching wildly. Ralph stared in stunned awe as Vanellope's mouth twitched, and her eyes slowly fluttered open. She shakily stood up.

"Vanellope?" Ralph croaked out. They stared at each other for a long moment before Vanellope collapsed into Ralph, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug.

Relief overwhelming him, Ralph stuttered uselessly, "Y-you… you regener—you—"

"I'm okay Ralph, I'm okay," Vanellope kept repeating as Ralph blinked back his tears. He didn't want to let go, but Vanellope eventually pried herself from his grasp.

"C'mon, Ralph, we gotta hurry!" She said, turning towards the Niceland building.

"Wh…what?" Ralph slowly stood up, confused.

"I'm okay, I can regenerate, and we've got a player waiting!" Vanellope said. She looked up at him, determination shining in her blue eyes. "I'm not letting your game get unplugged, big guy. Quit wastin' time!"

Ralph was still a little in shock, but he followed her back on screen. He was just glad she was alive.

* * *

The blonde haired gamer was about to call Mr. Litwak over for help when Felix came running back onto the screen. She was a little confused, as she was pretty sure the game wasn't supposed to play out this way, but it wasn't like she'd never seen the game act up strangely before.

And besides, the game seemed to be working more regularly after that. Felix wasn't doing that weird glitching thing anymore, and she was glad to see her favorite game seemed to be back to normal. She readjusted her glasses and continued to play.

* * *

Vanellope was able to get through the rest of the game, as well as the following games, with ease. Now that the fear of dying was gone, she was doing better than ever. Not quite as good as Felix himself, but pretty darn good if Ralph did say so himself.

After the arcade closed, Ralph told Felix and Calhoun what had happened. They looked just as shocked as Ralph had been.

"Sounds like you were mighty brave, little miss," Felix told Vanellope after the initial surprise had worn off.

"Quite brave," Calhoun agreed with a nod. Vanellope smiled sheepishly.

However, none of them could quite shake the troubled feeling that came with Vanellope's newfound ability to regenerate in Felix's game. Felix was acquiring Vanellope's traits at a rapid pace, and vice versa… and the thought of that didn't sit well with any of them.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thank you all so much for your kind reviews! Sorry for the wait!**

Monday came and went as slowly as Sour Bill explaining the laws of physics. Due to it being the beginning of the week, most of Ralph and Vanellope's day was spent in Felix's room, where the handyman was still snuggled under the covers. He was clearly starting to get antsy, after having been locked up in his room for a few days. At first, due to his weakened code, he showed some symptoms of a common cold; achy bones, runny nose, a bit of a cough. But the sickness quickly died down due to his constant bed rest. Now, other than the glitches that still often racked his body, he was fit as a fiddle, and was ready to spring to action.

Only, Ralph, Vanellope, Calhoun, and even Gene didn't think that Felix was well enough to leave his bed.

During the long breaks between Quarter Alerts on that lazy Monday afternoon, Felix would often quip, "So do ya think it'd be alright if I got up to stretch my legs a bit?" or something along those lines.

Fearful of Felix collapsing to the ground in a fit of glitches, Ralph would always heave a loud, obviously irked sigh, before grumbling, "No, brother, you need as much rest as you can get."

Usually by using the term 'brother,' Ralph was able to sedate any remaining protests Felix might have held upon the tip of his tongue. The handyman would fall into a reluctant silence, clear discomfort playing upon his face as he squirmed about restlessly, relishing any bit of movement his tiny body could soak in whilst remaining upon the bed.

Gene poked his mustachioed face into the room throughout the majority of the day, concerned for his almighty hero. His unwavering presence had been an unpleasant one to both Ralph and Vanellope, and, although he didn't openly complain about it, Felix didn't seem all too thrilled either. Gene frequently entered the room, shuffling over to the bed and propping his elbows up against the foot of the mattress.

"Felix," he would grunt in that painfully high-pitched voice of his, "how are you holding up?"

"Just dandy, Gene," Felix would respond, always sounding a little more exhausted than the last time he was forced to ground those 3 words out.

An awkward silence then stifled the room, never failing to grip the four. Only the rare yet familiar chime of a Quarter Alert was strong enough to break through the silence, and relief overcame Ralph and Vanellope. The two would bolt from the room as fast as they could, ever-so-grateful for the excuse to not have to talk to Gene.

Unfortunately, more often than not, when Felix's room suddenly suffered an onslaught of discomfort, it tended to stretch on for a while. At one point, it went on for so long that Vanellope grew impatient, and simply huffed, "Gene, can you just leave? I mean, y'know it's really awkward, so just… leave."

Hurt glinted in Gene's eyes, not so much from the words, but more from the voice speaking them. However, he managed to remind himself that, though she looked and sounded like Felix, in reality she was only an annoying 9-year-old girl. The vulnerable look vanishing from his eyes, Gene's thick mustache was buffeted by a small disgruntled sigh. Without a word, the mayor abruptly turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Sheesh, what an angry little man," observed Ralph with a quiet snort of amusement. "Good job gettin' rid of him there, Captain Crudface." He nudged Vanellope's side lightly with a large elbow, chuckling a little.

"Thanks, Prince Poopy," Vanellope jokingly responded, a large grin on her face. The two giggled amongst themselves like little schoolgirls as they tossed a few more harmless insults at one another.

Suddenly, a shadow loomed over them, surprising them into silence. They peered up at the figure, to find that it was only Felix. Well, Felix in Vanellope's body. His long raven hair was all mussed up, ponytail still in place, yet slightly askew. His sweatshirt was wrinkled and his shoes were absent. His tights had been stretched to the point where holes had begun to tear through them, likely from him writhing about in his bed so much.

"Felix," Ralph snapped, getting to his feet and hastily ushering Felix towards his bed. "I thought I told you not to—"

"No." Felix's Vanellope voice was hushed. In a way, it was almost terrifying, and Ralph felt chills roll down his spine.

"What was that?" He asked, plucking Felix off of the ground by the hood of his sweatshirt so that the two could be on eye-level.

"I said no," repeated Felix, anger flashing in his hazel-green eyes.

Ralph frowned. This wasn't good. It seemed that Felix was in a Vanellope-like state again. He felt that it was blamable on how stir-crazy the handyman had begun to get throughout the day. Maybe he should have let him roam about. "Felix, get ahold of yourself, please." The last thing he wanted was for the handyman to begin glitching due to the Vanellope persona temporarily taking over.

"I'm not Felix," hissed Vanellope's body, glitches beginning to jolt through his form. One of the glitches pricked Ralph's finger, resulting in Felix tumbling out of Ralph's grasp. As he made contact with the floor, he began to shriek in pain, his body becoming unrecognizable as glitches seized him, smothering his voice like a boot on a dying flame.

Ralph and Vanellope could only watch in horror. This wasn't any glitch attack they were familiar with; it was violent and without mercy, leaving no trace of their friend in the thrashing mess of blue code on the floor. Felix's shrieking had morphed into a noise not unlike static on a TV.

After a long, painful moment, the large chunk of blue code stilled. Vanellope's body was revealed with a flourish, as if a hand had descended from the heavens and simply swept the glitch off of his body. Felix was left in a heap on the floor, groaning quietly in agony as he squirmed about weakly, as if he were struggling to fight something off.

"Felix," whispered Ralph sadly as he scooped his friend into his arms, cradling him carefully; he seemed extremely fragile, and Ralph was terrified that even the slightest touch would cause Felix's Vanellope body to erupt in a frenzy of glitches once more. "Are you okay, there, buddy?" he asked softly. Vanellope clambered up Ralph's back, perching herself on her friend's shoulder and peering down thoughtfully at Felix, who was unresponsive, eyes screwed shut and teeth clenched tightly.

"Hey, small fry, c'mon," she pitched in, snapping her fingers in front of Felix's nose. "Wake up already. You're fine, ain'cha?" Though her words were playful, her Felix voice no longer held a hint of amusement; she spoke quietly and flatly, her azure eyes round with concern.

A soft whimper rose from Felix's throat, causing a small reassured smile to light up Ralph's face. He very gingerly prodded Felix's cheek, hoping to gain a response. Felix whined, his voice growing in volume as he rolled onto his side.

Ralph and Vanellope exchanged a relieved glance. Though Felix sounded like he was—at the very least—uncomfortable, he was able to move about, a good sign that he was okay.

"Let's get you back to bed," Ralph muttered to Felix, who groaned incoherently in response, continuing to squirm about. The wrecker lumbered over to Felix's bed, carefully setting the fixer back upon the mattress. Vanellope hopped off of Ralph's shoulder, taking hold of the covers and pulling them up over Felix's body.

Before she could tuck him in, Felix began to toss and turn, his eyebrows knitting in assumed pain. In the midst of his agonized floundering, he had unintentionally knocked Vanellope off of the bed. A few glitches sparked through Felix violently, and a small cry of pain left his throat. Then, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped, and Felix's Vanellope body was restored to its original form once more.

"It's almost as if something's attacking him," Ralph mused, an astonished look still lingering on his face due to the aftershock of Felix's glitch. "Ease up a little there, buddy," he attempted to coax his friend, planting a large hand upon Felix's Vanellope body comfortingly. Felix remained unresponsive, tiny moans of pain puncturing his silence.

"Do y'think he can hear us?" Vanellope pondered, looking up to her 9 foot tall friend.

"Not sure," Ralph admitted with a sigh, "but it wouldn't hurt to just act as if he can."

Vanellope shrugged in agreement as she hopped aboard Felix's bed again. She opened her mouth to say something to him, but just then, a Quarter Alert chirped in the distance. "You better be awake when we get back, Dippin' Dot, alright?" she grumbled to Felix, teasingly tapping his forehead and earning a quiet whimper in response. "I'll take that as a yes," she added, a large smile gracing her Felix face.

She leaped down from the bed, bounding out of the apartment. "C'mon, Ralph, no slackin'," she called behind her before disappearing around the corner.

"I'm coming," Ralph called after her, giving chase at a lamely slow pace. As he reached the threshold, he paused, whirling about to face Felix's bed. He stared at his friend for a moment, concern flooding him as a frown reached his face. "Get well soon, brother," he muttered, more to himself than to Felix. With that, he turned back around, ducking through the door frame and heading outside the apartment to begin the game.

Unfortunately, Vanellope and Ralph were stuck working for about an hour straight. The player was a terrible one, but had a large supply of quarters at the ready just for the occasion. He played the game about 5 times in a row, his main goal seeming to be getting to a level higher than 3. When he finally got to level 4, but lost halfway through due to a duck moving at a leisurely pace, he gave up.

However, the player was one of the few who had anger management problems, it seemed. He loudly swore at the machine, giving the console a swift kick, as if it was the game's fault that he was such a terrible gamer. The machine rattled, creating a miniature earthquake within Niceland. Vanellope cried out as she collided with the ground. Unfortunately, she had still been in the process of attempting to enter the apartment unnoticed, and was therefore still on the screen, in plain sight.

Ralph, unaffected by the small tremors, hastily scooped up Vanellope and rushed off-screen, hoping the player hadn't noticed their little fiasco.

Of course, the player had noticed. _Great, just our luck_, Ralph thought, gritting his teeth in annoyance and bracing himself as the player took hold of the machine and shook it violently. The ground beneath them moved this way and that, threatening to bowl Ralph over. He crouched down, bunching his muscles together and pressing Vanellope's Felix body against his chest. "Hang tight, kid," he hissed to her.

"Hey!" Litwak's enraged voice was a godsend, and Ralph felt himself relax slightly as the ground beneath him steadied. "What do you think you're doing, son? If you wanted another quarter, I'd be glad to lend you one, but don't ever touch the machines, alright?"

"I don't want a dumb ol' quarter," the kid snapped in response.

"Then why were you shaking the machine so angrily, son?" A pause, and then Litwak added, "Can't win every game, y'know."

"The characters moved all on their own," the kid explained, his frustration seeming to build. "This game is rigged, old man! Those characters are probably being controlled by some weirdo in the machine!"

Ralph and Vanellope held their breath, hoping Litwak wouldn't believe the angry little child.

"Well, y'know, son, in between games, they're supposed to move on their own; that's just the start-up screen." Litwak chuckled, ruffling the kid's hair. The child's face was beet red, and he opened his mouth, preparing for a retort, but Litwak quickly cut him off. "Why don't you go let out your anger on Whack-a-Mole? I'll even spot ya, if you promise not to kick or shake the machines again."

The kid contemplated this, the anger draining from his face. "Okay, I promise," he finally relented, smiling a little as Litwak led him to the Whack-a-Mole game.

Ralph and Vanellope both let out huge sighs of relief and heaved themselves to their feet. Ralph set Vanellope upon his shoulder before hurrying into the apartment building, making sure to not be spotted this time.

Inside, Nicelanders were bustling about, fretting over knocked-over tables and cracked vases. Gene was rushing down hallways and straightening all the crooked frames of paintings, while Mary used a dustpan to sweep up broken bits of glass. Norwood and Deanna aided one another in propping the furniture back onto their legs, and Nel was using a giant towel to soak up any spilled liquids upon the floor.

In truth, it was mayhem, and something finally dawned on Ralph. "Felix," he said quietly to himself before breaking into a sprint up the stairs.

As he ran, he shook the apartment a little more, and he could hear the Nicelanders emit screeches of surprise from the floor below. He noticed Vanellope had gotten unusually quiet. "Doing alright there, kid?" he asked aloud. However, instead of receiving an answer, a flash of plain struck his shoulder. Without thinking, he brushed whatever was hurting him away, causing poor glitching Vanellope to tumble to the ground.

Ralph managed to snatch her off the ground before her glitching Felix body could roll down the stairs. Ignoring the blistering pain that attacked his large meaty hands, he bounded up the stairs as fast as he could. Once in Felix's room, he rushed to dump Vanellope upon Felix's empty bed. Wait… empty?

Ralph glanced about before spotting Felix on the floor; he, too, was suffering from a violent glitching spell, entangled in a bundle of blankets. Ralph groaned, putting a large hand to his forehead. He could feel a headache coming on. It was bad enough having to deal with Felix glitching, but now Vanellope was too.

* * *

As soon as the arcade closed, Ralph gathered Vanellope and Felix in his arms and took them to Game Central Station to meet up with Calhoun. While originally, they all planned on meeting in Fix-it Felix Jr., Ralph felt that Felix needed some fresh air.

Upon entering Game Central, Ralph immediately spotted Calhoun, who was already making her way over to their game. He waited impatiently for her to approach them. When she was within earshot, he burst into a panicked explanation of everything that had happened.

The Sergeant appeared to be listening, though she looked utterly bewildered. When he finally stopped for breath, she growled, "Spare me the details, soldier, you're rambling."

Ralph frowned. "I don't know how to explain it without the details. But if it makes you happy, I'll try." He rolled his eyes at her, before sighing deeply. "Hokay, let's see. Well, Gene was being an ass, but that's a given…"

"I said spare me the details," Calhoun sternly reminded him.

"I know," he grumbled, then continued, "I guess, basically, Felix went bonkers and was glitching a whole lot. I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty bad. You couldn't even see him beneath all that blue stuff! Van—"

"Is he okay now?" Calhoun cut in, eyes round with concern. Her gaze flickered to Felix, who was tucked safely within Ralph's elbow, fast asleep. He had been in and out of consciousness for most of the day, mostly due to—Ralph guessed—exhaustion.

"Don't worry, he's fine," Ralph reassured her. "Anyway, as I was saying. Vanellope had a really bad glitch attack too. It was just as bad as Felix's, and suddenly, they were both glitching up really bad, at the same time. And when they stopped glitching…" he trailed off, a grim look on his face, as if he were reliving the event.

"Well? Spit it out, soldier," Calhoun pressed, worry eating at her.

"Well, it was almost as if they were in each other's bodies," Ralph explained. "Or, technically, back in their own bodies. Vanellope's body was being all snarky, and Felix's body was being all polite. I got a bit hopeful for a moment that they'd glitched back to normal or something, but then, they were both hit with another glitch, which wasn't nearly as bad as the first one, and just like that, they were back to their ol' body-switched selves again."

Ralph allowed Calhoun to take in all the information he had just thrown at her. After a few minutes of silence, she let out a heavy sigh. "Is that everything?"

"Yep," he confirmed.

"I know I told you to spare me the details before, but do you think you could better explain that glitch-switch business?" Calhoun inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Sure, but you might want to sit down for this." Calhoun and Ralph settled upon an empty bench that was seated directly beside Fix-it Felix Jr. Calhoun carefully removed Felix from Ralph's arm, gingerly placing him on her lap. He nuzzled against her, light snores escaping his Vanellope mouth, undisturbed by the new arrangements. Vanellope herself was snuggled safely between Ralph's shirt and overalls, snoring softly as well.

"Alright, Wreck-it, shoot," Calhoun prompted.

Ralph nodded before launching into details of what had happened only a few hours prior.

* * *

Felix and Vanellope's glitching had waned off rather quickly, almost in synchronization. Ralph had huddled them up into his arms, settling them both on the bed. Unlike earlier, Felix was alert, his hazel Vanellope eyes as wide as saucers. Vanellope, meanwhile, looked more somber, her cobalt Felix eyes downcast.

"Are you two alright?" Ralph asked, staring hard at them. They seemed… off, to say the least.

"Oh, I'm fine, brother," Vanellope chirruped, her head snapping up to look Ralph in the eyes as a bubbly smile lit up her Felix face.

Ralph's eyebrows furrowed. "Seriously, Vanellope, don't say that."

"Say what?" Felix piped up, crawling over to the edge of the bed and sitting up on his haunches, his Vanellope eyes peering up at Ralph expectantly.

Uh… I wasn't talking to you," Ralph said slowly, his frown deepening. _Okay, this is getting weird_, he mused inwardly. "Are you sure you're alright?" He redirected his attention to Vanellope, watching her closely.

"Fit as a fiddle," she confirmed, swinging her arm in front of her chest, which was an extremely Felix-y action.

"Are you two…" he faltered, a bit hesitant to ask the question that sat on the tip of his tongue.

"Are we what?" Felix squeaked, giving Ralph an annoyed look that suited the Vanellope face he wore. "Well? Spit it out, Stinkbrain," he added impatiently.

_That just about confirms it._ "…back to normal?" he finished, his voice weak with confusion.

As soon as the words left his lips, both Vanellope and Felix's eyes widened. Felix opened his mouth to say something, but just then, the two were rocked with a violent yet quick glitch. The two were knocked backwards onto the bed, a few aftershock glitches rolling through them. The glitch attack was measly when compared to the one they had suffered earlier, and within a matter of seconds, the two were sitting back up again, wide eyes locked on Ralph.

"What happened?" Felix was the first to speak, his Vanellope voice even more hoarse than usual.

"I have no idea," Ralph admitted. "You two… switched minds or something."

Felix and Vanellope stared at him in confusion and Ralph proceeded to recount what had happened to them.

* * *

"And that's what happened," Ralph finished, leaning back slightly in satisfaction.

Calhoun received the story in silence, her lips puckered as she contemplated everything that Ralph had told her. Finally, she sighed, resting her forehead in the palm of her hand.

"Hey," Ralph began, gingerly laying a large hand on her back. "Don't worry so much. It seems like mentioning that they're acting weird turns them back to normal, so at least we have that going for us."

Calhoun was silent for a moment before mumbling, "But how do you know for sure that they're back to normal?" She removed a hand from her face and turned to face Ralph, and for the first time, he noticed how exhausted and sorrowful the sergeant looked. It truly looked as if she had been through hell and back. A pang of pity struck his chest; he should've realized that Calhoun was the one emotionally struggling the most with all of this. Her husband's life was very likely at stake.

"Trust me, I'm sure," he promised, raising a hand as if reciting an oath. "From the way they were acting, they were definitely back to normal."

Calhoun looked skeptical. "How did they act, though?" she pressed, clearly unhappy with the minimal information that she was receiving.

"Y'know, just... like themselves."

"But what if they're just acting that way but in his head, Felix is really Vanellope now? What if Vanellope is Felix now? What if my husband isn't the same anymore?" As she spoke, her voice began to lose vigor, cracking as she whispered the last sentence. She tilted her head downwards, allowing her bangs to cover her eyes.

"Sarge," Ralph said, voice hushed, "pull yourself together, okay? Felix will be fine." A pause, before he went on to add, "I bet you that come Wednesday, those Coders will know exactly what to do, and we can get this whole mess cleaned up like _that_," he snapped his fingers for emphasis.

His coaxing words were met with silence. Finally, Calhoun took one, final shaky breath, before turning her attention to Ralph once more, a newfound determination sparking in her gaze. "You're right, Wreck-it." With that, Calhoun got to her feet, cradling Felix in her arms. "C'mon," she said to Ralph, signaling for him to follow her with a jerk of her head.

Ralph obediently got to his feet, using a large hand to steady the handyman-shaped Vanellope lump that jutted out from the top of his overalls. "Where are we going?" he quipped as he began to lumber after her, careful not to drop Vanellope from the precarious spot in which she slumbered, unperturbed.

"Sugar Rush. I think we need a bit of a mental vacation, and that diabetes-inflicting, marshmallow-smothered land of mayhem is just the place to take one."


End file.
